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The Efficient Layman 

OR 

THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF MEN 



By 

Henry Frederick Cope 

General Secretary 
The Religious Education Association 

Author of 

'The Modern Sunday-School in Principle and Practice' 

" Levels of Living," " The Friendly Life," etc 



The Griffith & Rowland Press 

Philadelphia 
Boston Chicago St. Louis 






Copyright 1911 by 
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 

Published January, 1911 




INTRODUCTORY 

Stated in the briefest possible terms the inquiry 
proposed is that of discovering and developing suit- 
able and adequate agencies and means for the stimu- 
lation and direction of the life of the adult man to 
the fulness of its higher possibilities. Man is re- 
garded not as a being having religion or upon whom 
religion, as a separate something, may be con- 
ferred, but he is regarded as normally religious — 
a being of such a nature and character that his life 
reaches its fulness only as he lives for its higher 
values, only as he learns to live in loyalty to his 
best ideals and as he comes into those adjustments 
and relationships to that life of the spirit of which 
he is normally conscious and which he usually calls 
the divine. 

The inquiry is followed practically, rather than 
for the sake of discovering any complete theory 
of the religious development of the life of the 
adult. It is undertaken in the hope of arousing the 
church to provide for the needs of men (as well as 
for women and children), in the hope that the recent 

V 



VI INTRODUCTORY 

awakening to a recognition of the needs and the 
laws of the adolescent life may carry itself over into 
a recognition that life is a vital matter after twenty- 
five as well as before, in the hope also of awakening 
and directing in some individuals the sense of the 
larger life possible for them, and especially of bring- 
ing popular conceptions of the religious life of adults 
into harmony with modern principles in education 
and with modern viewpoints in their intense prac- 
ticability. 

One other hope inspires this inquiry, that a wider 
and more general survey of the varied agencies 
operating for the religious training of the adult will 
awaken not only appreciation of their scope, im- 
portance, and undeveloped possibilities, but may lead 
to closer economy of operation and to increased 
efficiency in service through their co-ordination into 
educational unity. 

Naturally we look to the formal agencies of re- 
ligion when we would discover the machinery and 
the forces for the religious education of the adult; 
we look to churches, brotherhoods, the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and the schools of the 
churches. We find nearly all these agencies con- 
ducting educational activities; the church has its 
Sunday-school, the Young Men's Christian Asso- 



INTRODUCTORY Vll 

ciation its classes, the brotherhoods their educa- 
tional propaganda. But we find too, that almost 
without exception the educational activities of all 
these agencies are directed to children and youth; 
until recently the Sunday-school was exclusively for 
children, and now in by far the greater number of 
instances it is regarded and conducted as an institu- 
tion for infants and adolescents; the classes in the 
Young Men's Christian Association are very largely 
for youths, though they may endeavor to enroll 
men; the educational plans of the various brother- 
hoods seldom contemplate provision for the definite 
formal education of the adult. 

Perhaps an examination into the character and 
extent of the provision made for the religious and 
moral training of the adult man will reveal a 
neglect which will come as a surprise to those who 
suppose that our only danger lies in the neglect of 
the child, or that if there exists any danger in rela- 
tion to the education of the adult it is in the ten- 
dency to take the adult as the norm in education. 
It is true, as Professor Coe suggests,^ that we have 
too long laid undue emphasis on the adult point of 
view in religious education; but the trouble lies in 
the fact that this emphasis has been in the applica- 

1 " Education in Religion and Morals," p. 13. 



Vlll INTRODUCTORY 

tion of the adult point of view to the education of 
the child. 

We have not altogether neglected the psychology 
of the adult — we have applied it to the wrong sub- 
jects. For long the religious education of the young 
meant the attempt to make them over according 
to the pattern of adult piety and experience. If 
now we catch the new view and see a child's re- 
ligion for a child and begin to obey the laws of the 
child life in seeking to lead the child out into life, 
ought w^e not also to begin to apply the adult ideals 
in education to the adult, to obey the laws of the 
adult life in leading the adult out into the fulness of 
life? If once we tried to make children according 
to the pattern of the adult it will not remedy matters 
to-day either to try to make adults according to the 
pattern of the child or to be willing that they should 
remain in the period of development that ends with 
the last days of adolescence. 

It is worth while at the outset to understand 
clearly the purpose of the religious training of the 
adult man. By such religious training to-day one 
means something quite different from any process of 
instruction in the theories of religion, in theology, or 
in biblical criticism. Doubtless these have their 
place; but they are to be regarded as sources of 



INTRODUCTORY iX 

inspiration, material on which the life may feed, 
rather than as ends in themselves. The word " re- 
ligious " is used here in the broadest significance, 
thinking of religion as the full life, as health rather 
than as a system of medicine or as a study of the 
anatomy and physiology of the healthy life. " Re- 
ligious training " means the development of the life 
by nurture, by inspiration, by exercise, by discovery 
of self and one's universe, into fulness of self-real- 
ization, into consciousness and appreciation of one's 
spiritual heritage, into perfectness of natural and 
social adjustment, into fulness of social efficiency. 
In a word, it is the religious or higher aspect of that 
process which in its completeness we call education. 
For convenience it might be called '' the religious 
education of the adult man," with the reservation 
that one recognizes that, technically, there never can 
be any such thing as " religious education " any more 
than there can be, properly speaking. Industrial edu- 
cation or musical education, though there may be 
religious training and nurture just as there may be 
musical training or industrial training. " The re- 
ligious training of the adult " cannot be properly 
considered save as a part of the whole educational 
process, as part of the training of the entire united 
man, and as an essential, integral part of that train- 



X INTRODUCTORY 

ing which the whole range of experiences constitutes 
education. 

While details of plans and operations in dis- 
tinctively religious agencies are chiefly considered, 
we must not lose sight of the fact that such agencies 
have value only because they are parts of our whole 
and indivisible hfe; the church is life expressing 
itself in the functions of religion ; it is neither more 
nor less of life than the market which is life in its 
functions of local economic co-operation; or the 
school, which is life in its express function of social 
training. Only as we regard religious training as 
an essential part of that whole process of education 
which leads the life to highest values in social 
efficiency will religion have any real significance to 
our day. 



CONTENTS 

Pa<;e 

Introductory v 

CHAPTER I 
Principles of Masculine Development i 



CHAPTER H 
The Church Winning Men ii 

CHAPTER HI 
The Church Training Men 23 

CHAPTER IV 
A Lay Ministry 47 

CHAPTER V 
The Sunday-school and the Man 53 

CHAPTER VI 
The Adult Bible Class 74 

CHAPTER VII 
The Brotherhoods — Their Organization 99 

CHAPTER VIII 
The Brotherhoods — Their Plans of WbRK 113 

CHAPTER IX 

The Brotherhoods — Their Extension Work 125 

xi 



Xll CONTENTS 

Pagb 

CHAPTER X 
The Brotherhoods — Their Educational Policy 144 

CHAPTER XI 

Young Men's Christian Association 155 

CHAPTER Xn 
The College Man in the Church 172 

CHAPTER Xni 
Training Men in the Colleges 184 

CHAPTER XIV 
Social Settlements 204 

CHAPTER XV 

Lodges and Fraternities 212 

CHAPTER XVI 
The Strategic Moment for the Churches 230 



The Efficient Layman 



CHAPTER I 

PRINCIPLES OF MASCULINE DEVELOPMENT 

What are the physical characteristics of this period ? 
The structure has attained its general proportions; 
the various organs have entered 
upon their functions; normally Is Development 
there will be little change in size or theAdultlile? 
weight; physically the growing 
period is over. What, however, is taking place in 
the body of the adult from the age of twenty-five 
to that of fifty? Is he not still in the process of 
anabolism ? The breaking down is less on the whole 
than the building up. Strength increases for a num- 
ber of these years. The muscles develop ; in what- 
ever way they are exercised greater dexterity is ac- 
quired; the body is still susceptible to training. In 
nearly every instance, however, some functions de- 
velop unduly, without balance with the others, while 
these others, being neglected, tend toward atrophy 
and decay. The athlete or the acrobat may not 
be able to begin his preparation in maturity, but it 
would be folly to state that he cannot hope to im- 
prove, to develop, to " learn any new tricks " during 
that period. The general recognition of the principle 



2 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

of continuous physical training and development is 
evident to-day in the popularity of outdoor sports 
and indoor exercises for adult men. 

Psychologically ^ manhood is the period of the co- 
ordination of the life of intellect and of the senses. 
The " stress and storm " period is 
Masculine usually past. The man feels his 

Charactensbcs ■' ^ 

grip on life. He fits into his place 
in the life of the world and bends to its service. 
Opinions are viewed less tragically, more calmly; 
the man concerns himself more with their practical 
aspects than with their theoretical bearings. Un- 
less opinions are stirred by intellectual combat, by 
the good fortune of political strife for example, they 
tend to fixity, then to stagnation and mental steril- 
ity. Centuries of placidity, freedom from intellec- 
tual strife and necessity, accompanied by unremit- 
ting repression, account for the brief youth and the 
long, colorless manhood of much of the European 
peasantry. 

But instances ^ almost innumerable exist to re- 
mind us of the possibilities of psychological develop- 
ment during the period of manhood. 

Mature and Yet Many men who have achieved dis- 

CjTOWing ... 

tmction m various calhngs, as 
artists, scientists, and statesmen have been entirely 
unconscious of their powers until manhood was at- 

^ The literature on the genetic psychology of the adult is not ex- 
tensive. For a discussion of the adult religious development, see 
" The Psychologry of Religion," Starbuck, pp. 277-310. 

2 A classic list of examples is given in " Self Help,'' by Samuel 
Smiles. 



PRINCIPLES OF MASCULINE DEVELOPMENT 3 

tained. Their real period of development has ap- 
parently covered the years after twenty-five. 
Scarcely any of the great contributions made to 
science or to art or to literature have been created 
earlier than during this period of manhood. Many 
are the instances of those who, after reaching phys- 
ical maturity, have resolutely set their faces toward 
fields, hitherto by them untried, in which they have 
attained signal success. Within himself every man 
who has the introspection that accompanies a larger 
vision and service in life sees clearly that, important 
physiologically as was the period of adolescence, and 
important as it may have been in determining the 
trend and habits of the later years, the greatest 
growth intellectually and spiritually, in power and 
reach, in grasp and facility, has come during the 
later years. One case comes to mind of a man who, 
having practised the violin as a youth, finding an 
instrument in his possession after eighteen years of 
silence, found also that his mind had been so 
trained in those eighteen years that it was appar- 
ently much easier to acquire facility than it had 
been when he had ceased to play as a boy. Intel- 
lectual training had given the mind power to grasp 
quickly the musical notations, and to secure ready 
muscular reaction. 

Our graduate and professional schools contain a 
goodly percentage of men of adult years. They 
may be divided into two general groups : those who 
come after a hiatus in their academic experience, 



4 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

after some years spent in business or professional 
service, seeking wider preparation, and those who 
either because they have begun their undergraduate 
studies late in life or because they have made unusu- 
ally extended preparation come, after the age of 
twenty-five, to graduate work without a break in the 
habits of sustained systematic study. Observation 
and inquiry in many directions show that the latter 
class altogether outstrip their juniors in thorough- 
ness of work, in application, and in powers of sus- 
tained concentrated attention and painstaking in- 
vestigation ; that they outstrip even those who, with 
equal opportunities and breadth of preparation, are 
younger than they. In the case of those who have 
lost somewhat, through the excursion into active 
business or professional life, the habits of sustained 
study, the loss is more than compensated by the 
general grasp on affairs and by thoroughness of ap- 
plication. Steadfastness of purpose marks the ma- 
ture student; nearly all who have to do with him 
testify to his powers of development. 

One often hears the expression, " He is growing 
in mind," or, " He is broadening out," and oc- 
casionally, with no small measure of wonder, " He 
is always learning something new." The popular 
assumption seems to be that it is an abnormality for 
a mature man to develop intellectually. The truth 
is that the many, many men who are pushing on, 
unsatisfied, conscious of incompleteness, recogni- 
zing that " man partly is and wholly hopes to be," 



PRINCIPLES OF MASCULINE DEVELOPMENT 5 

reaching out after life, are the normal men in a 
world where, if all had the spiritual heritage which 
is theirs by right, all would yield to this same pas- 
sion for improvement. 

Is this period also one of religious development ? ^ 
Or are we to assume, as leaders in religion have 
often done, either that the fine 
growth of the spiritual life is so Religious 

° . ^ Uevelopment 

achieved by some mysterious or 
miraculous bound into fulness of life that nothing 
more remains to be done, or that childhood and 
youth are the only periods of growth, and when 
these are past all hope of further development may 
well be abandoned? If manhood is a period of pos- 
sible psychological development, it must be a 
period of possible spiritual development; there can 
be no difference in these characteristics. The fact 
that the period of maturity is not marked by greater 
religious growth is due, not to man's incapacity for 
development therein, but to failure to furnish or 
improve the proper conditions for such development. 
Churches have been maintained and their activities 
supported very largely in order that the mature 
men might grow in grace; but the plan of feeding 
these men with milk for babes or of fattening them 
on angel's food, literally as well as figuratively, 
naturally has not resulted in healthful development. 
We have not stopped to ask, has a man a religious 

3 On mature religious beliefs, see Pratt, in " Psychology of Re- 
ligious Belief," Chap. VIII. 



6 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

nature which requires any particular form of spirit- 
ual nurture, any types of exercise, any activities for 
its development other than those which have been 
found favorable to the development of infants or of 
women ? 

It is perhaps less necessary to point out in what 

ways the religious life of the man differs from that 

of the child or the youth than it is 

Men and Women .-j'-i-nj- - e 

to mdicate briefly divergencies from 
the religious characteristics of the feminine mind.* 
Questionaires among the sexes show that to the 
woman religion is more largely a life of feeling, 
that consciousness of the divine presence and 
friendship is perhaps the characteristic religious ex- 
perience, that there is more proneness to introspec- 
tion, a keener appreciation of the graces and finer 
beauties, the tenderness, the light, the gentleness of 
ideal characters among women than among men.^ 
If we select one hundred hymns, say the best in 
general use, from the songs of the church, we 
find, first, that those which are hymns of subjec- 
tive experience and those which are hymns of 
adoration and passive aspiration, appeal much more 
largely to women than to men, while men select 
those which express action, describe conflict, or as- 

* Compare Coe, in "The Spiritual Life," pp. 236-244; also a chapter 
on " Sex " in " The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity," by 
G. B. Cutten. " The Masculine in Religion " is the title of a sug- 
gestive little book by C. D. Case, Ph. D., containing a ch'^pter on 
" Sex in Religion." 

^ See on comparative characteristics, Havelock Eljis' " Man 
and Woman," Chap. XII, XIII; also a summary by Geo. A. Coe, 
in " The Spiritual Life," pp. 236f ; also discussed by C. D. Case in 
" The Masculine in Religion," Chap. I-IV. 



PRINCIPLES OF MASCULINE DEVELOPMENT 7 

pire after social salvation. In compiling such a col- 
lection of hymns,® the writer, receiving many sug- 
gestions of " favorite hymns," could almost without 
fail detect the sex of the suggester from, the char- 
acter of the hymn, even before the name was reached 
in the communication. Secondly, one finds, in the 
study of hymns, that since the practice of singing is 
rather an act of adoration than a form of direct 
activity, hymns have a much larger place in the re- 
ligious life of women than of men. 

The speculative side "^ of the religious life of 
men ^ differs from that of women in that the man 
finds pleasure often in the philosophical and abstract 
problems of religion, while to the women all such 
problems are personal. He exercises himself in 
theology, biblical, historical, or theoretical; she in 
experience, in the consideration and discussion of 
the life of feeling and relationships, as she knows it. 
Ordinarily, and broadly, the emphasis with the man 
is intellectual ; with the woman, emotional. 

The distinguishing characteristics of mature mas- 
culine religion are, the sense of right and duty 
which regards religion as a life of goodness and 
service, the emphasis on the positive, practical, and 
concrete, the desire for expression of faith and con- 
viction in action and an awakening regard for the 
social significances of rehgion. 

® " Hymns You Ought to Know," by Henry F. Cope. 
^ See " The Psychology of Religion," Starbuck, Chap. XXV. 
^ See, for the religious life of young men, " The Church and 
Young Men," Cressy, especially Chap. II. 



8 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The question as to whether men or women are 
the more religious is usually answered by inade- 
Men and the quate tests. As the churches are or- 
Churches ganized and conducted to-day, they 
meet the religious needs of the feminine type so 
much more closely that they are bound to show the 
man as, if not less religious, certainly less church- 
ly. When the church meets the actual life needs of 
men — of real men as men are — the men will be 
there in due proportions. 

The differences in mental characteristics between 
men and women suggest that while many church ac- 
tivities and opportunities may meet the needs of 
both, there should be special and adequate pro- 
vision, based on careful study for the peculiar needs 
of the masculine life, just as now there has come to 
be that which is suited to the feminine. 

What has been said in regard to the introspective 
habits of the feminine mind must not lead us to sup- 
pose that men are never introspec- 
n ospec on ^.^^^ rpj^^ adult tendencies in this di- 
rection are most marked at two periods, from eight- 
een to twenty-five, and very late in life. In women 
this habit often becomes morbid through middle life. 
In men, while morbidity is very infrequent, in some 
cases the habit is so strong and the inspection so 
minute that it becomes a species of mania, resulting 
in brooding melancholy. 

There are strata of melancholia in almost all men. 
It is easy to bring these to the surface and to make 



PRINCIPLES OF MASCULINE DEVELOPMENT 9 

them the material of the life building. The pensive 
habit is apt to lead to pessimism. It must often be 
corrected by sharp, and even caustic, remedies. For 
less severe cases, cheerful company, especially of 
those v^^hose seriousness of purpose is undoubted 
and, above all, plenty of wholesome activity, are 
good medicine for the blues. Actively to participate 
in relieving real sorrows will readily dissipate imag- 
inary ones. Doing one's duty dispels doubts, and ^ 
despair vanishes in endeavor in worthy service. 

On the whole men love cheer, light, and hope; 
they would rather believe in the good than in the 
bad. You will never get far with 
men without some faith in their es- The Magnerism of 
sential love of the good and the 
true. Robert Louis Stevenson is a type of spiritual 
development by no means as common as we might 
wish, the cheerful wayfarer who struggles against 
tremendous odds, with most serious handicaps, but 
who, nevertheless, whistles as he pushes on. He 
may have a ravenous beast tearing his breast, but 
there is more than Spartan courage or Stoic calm as 
he not only keeps up his own courage, but heartens 
us all so splendidly. It is significant that Stevenson 
is the ideal of so many men. There are those who 
know nothing about his inner life struggles who, 
from him, are learning his lesson, and there are yet 
others who live with him in the fellowship of suf- 
fering through some secret disease or burden. 

Stevenson suggests at least one characteristic that 



10 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

must be studied in the life of the modern man — ^he 
feels the duty and finds the joy of so living and 
bearing himself as to add to the sum of all happi- 
ness. Something in a man answers to that. You 
will find in the office of the pessimist the sign, 
" Keep smiling " ; that means nothing. You will 
find in the life of the greater number of men the aim 
to keep the world sweet, and that means cheer and 
brightness; to bury your sorrows and water your 
joys. You must take account of this altruistic 
optimism if you would train and use men. 

Above all, one must bear in mind the gregarious 
tendencies of men. They gravitate together; they 
are social beings. The solitary Hfe dies down; in 
communal living, in the friction and co-operation of 
business, in the mind sharpened upon mind, in the 
tonic atmosphere of homogeneous groups, men ex- 
pand, their powers push out and are developed. 
Religion must use the social instincts and neces- 
sities, and must furnish men with an atmosphere 
socially masculine and spiritual. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CHURCH WINNING MEN 

To comprehend the work of the church in the re- 
ligious training of the adult man, we ought first 
to ask, " What should the church hold itself re- 
sponsible for in the religious education of the 
individual ? " and then, " How should the church 
discharge this responsibility?" 

There are many possible views of the responsi- 
bility of the church ^ ; some hold that religious edu- 
cation belongs to it exclusively, since to it is com- 
mitted all religious work, and whatever is done 
without the church is unreligious ; others, that the 
limits of its responsibility are self-determined in 
that it is a voluntary body undertaking the work it 
deems best; in other instances, the policy and the 
sense of responsibility is determined by the ac- 
ceptance of that philosophy which regards religion 
as relating only to some hidden entity within man, 
and does not include education among the processes 
of salvation. Must it not be true, however, that in 
the church, as in every other living organism, re- 
sponsibility is determined by nature and functions? 

1 See "The Improvement of Religious Education," pp. 208-210; 
"The Aims of Religious Education," pp. 29, 50, 147; "Education 
and National Character," pp. 37, 78. 

II 



12 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

It can have no obligations beyond its opportunities, 
its powers, and capacities. 

The church is the social-group organization of the 
religious life and spirit. Its functions are primarily 
spiritual, in the realm of ideals; they are inspi- 
rational, prophetic, promotional.^ 

As a group the church will bring to the individual 
the force and benefit of group-religious potencies; 
it will mold individual opinion by the force of its 
collective opinion ; it will strengthen individual con- 
viction, stimulate individual aspiration, and direct 
individual conduct by the power of group ideals 
adequately expressed. And, since that which gives 
unity and vitality to this religious group is its 
spiritual character, it will bring into all life the dis- 
tinctly spiritual element, and will hold itself re- 
sponsible for the right and perfect relation of the 
individual to the spiritual, for the development of 
the individual into spiritual being and service, and 
for his acquisition of his full heritage as such 
a spiritual being. 

With the broader view of education in mind, all 
the duties and responsibilities of the church appear 
Church and to be related to religious education. 
Education fhe church is responsible for the 
community or group expression of religion, for the 
relation of the agencies and forces of the religious 
group to the individual, for the inspiration of the 

2 On the contribution of the church, see J. H. Crocker, in " The 
Church of To-day," Chap. VII; S. Mathews, in " Church and Chang- 
ing Order." 



THE CHURCH WINNING MEN I3 

individual with the rehgious aim and spirit, for the 
direction of the individual in those forms of relig- 
ious service which develop character, and for the or- 
ganization, co-ordination, general conduct, and in- 
spiration of all other agencies of education having 
the spiritual development of the individual in mind. 

In particular the church is responsible for the 
spiritual nurture of the individual; indirectly, 
through the training of parents, the inspiration of 
family and home life, the stimulating and aiding of 
other teachers, and the care for the whole physical 
environment of developing life as related to moral 
and religious character. Directly, the church is re- 
sponsible for the creation of a religious social at- 
mosphere for the individual, for the direction to 
right relations to formal religious institutions, for 
definite instruction, formal and informal in religion, 
for the erection of standards and creation of ideals 
and their indorsement by itself as a social group, 
and for the opportunity for the individual's self- 
expression of the religious life through service. 

To sum up, then, the church is responsible for the 
religious instruction and nurture of all those related 
to it in any way, for the preservation to the youth 
and the man of those spiritual heritages to which 
they are born, for the inspiration of all educational 
agencies with the religious spirit and ideals, and 
for the improvement of these agencies, whether 
within its organization or without, to greater effi- 
ciency as moral and religious forces. 



14 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The process of readjustment in order to meet the 
nurtural need of adult religious life must go on 
all the way down through the organization and 
methods of the church. The religious training of 
the adult begins in infancy; what the man will be 
the kindergarten is determining. We have been 
altogether too short-sighted in our religious educa- 
tional programs. We cannot remedy the defects of 
adult training by considering the adult division of 
the Sunday-school only. All the divisions of the 
school have to come into the unity of singleness of 
educational purpose, that purpose being the training 
of the full religious life. 

It is impossible to provide for the religious 
training of the adult if this training is not an in- 
tegral part of the training of the 
Where ^d When ^^ole life from childhood up, and 

to Begin ^ 

if this training is not prefaced by 
suitable processes in the earlier years. The least 
part of the child's development is a large part of 
the life of the man. It is therefore, for the sake of 
the man, necessary to consider a little the training 
of the child. 

Manifestly there is need for certain readjustments 
before the church can be said to discharge this re- 
sponsibility. Provision must be made for the re- 
ligious nurture of the infant. Then, there must be 
provision for the relation of the child to the church 
in early childhood, in order that one of its first 
conscious impressions after it reaches the age of 



THE CHURCH WINNING MEN 1$ 

consciousness of self may not be that that self is 
outside the church. Recognizing the development 
of the religious life as a gradual process, should 
there not be corresponding stages in the develop- 
ment of the relation of the youth to the church? 
As it is to-day practically the child is either an alien 
or an outcast or, being in the church, he is burdened 
with the responsibility of an elder in Israel. The 
practice of causing the youth to take the whole 
course of admission to full church life in one leap 
may be as damaging as the philosophy which re- 
gards salvation as achieved at a bound. The church 
must adapt its methods to the lives and the life 
processes of those who are under its care ; the child 
must determine the work of the church for him by 
the laws of his life and the man by the laws of his 
life. The church must provide for the expression of 
the child's religion; it must especially avoid the 
present common attempt to force the young to wear 
the father's spiritual garments and to give empty 
expression to assumed maturer virtues and experi- 
ences, as in the junior young people's meetings. 
There must come the substitution of comprehensive, 
continuous spiritual nurture for sporadic, unre- 
lated efforts. The various activities of the church, 
societies, clubs, meetings, etc., must be so determined 
and co-ordinated as to furnish opportunity for 
steady symmetrical development and complete and 
harmonious religious education. Individual and 
group character must become the aim rather than 



l6 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

an organization. This will eliminate the conception 
of the religious educational work of the church as 
being the conduct of miniature theological semi- 
naries or the care of inert fragments of heavenly 
bodies. The ideal will be the development of char- 
acter in stability, unity, fertility, efficiency, and 
beauty. Religious education will not be the func- 
tion of one agency of the church alone; it will be 
the aim of all. Then the child and the adult will 
both have their places in all the life of the church ; 
the Sunday-school will not take the place of the 
church for the child, nor the Sunday newspaper be 
wholly sufficient for the man. 

The church has a heavy responsibility to-day in 

educating its people from the passive to the active 

type of religion, that they may be 

Activity and YiQve " not to be ministered unto, 

Lxpression • • „ x i • 

but to mmister. It must begm 
this work early, and continue it through all the life 
of the individual. The need for expressional ac- 
tivity may be met, in some measure, through the 
use of the institutional activities in the church itself, 
through its social activities. But, still more may be 
done, as the church teaches the individual to realize 
that the church itself finds the expression of its life 
and the individual finds the expression of his re- 
ligion largely through the things outside the institu- 
tional life of the church, in daily living, in social 
duties. 
At present the church presents instruction without 



THE CHURCH WINNING MEN \J 

Opportunity for expression, and often some oppor- 
tunities of adult expression without any attempt at 
correlated instruction. Perhaps there is as much 
need to remedy the latter defect as the former, to 
provide for the formal instruction, the continuous 
nurture of the later adolescent and adult. This will 
be but the following of the principles of education 
on the part of the church. The time has come to 
plead that every advantage that has come to the 
Sunday-school by the recognition of its educational 
function shall come also to the church in all its 
work, that in all that is done for the spiritual de- 
velopment of men the highest efficiency shall be 
secured by simple obedience to the principles which 
educational science is discovering. When we hon- 
estly apply ourselves to the training of character 
as a business, we will find that fully half of our 
other problems, as of finances, attendance, influence, 
and authority, are solved. Get the heart of the man 
in his inner life, in that which molds him, and you 
have him in all of his activities. 

The indictment that rests against the church is 
not simply that she has failed to carry the applica- 
tion of the laws she is learning now p^ ^^^^ church 
in relation to the development of the Mean to 
religious life of the child forward Educate Men? 
into the life of the man; it is more general and 
sweeping — it is that she has not, in modern times, 
at least, accepted the elementary laws of education in 
their relation to her work of the development of the 



1 8 THE EFFICIENT LAYM/ N 

religious character. While here and there are to 
be found men and women who recognize the unitary 
character of all education, and so follow the laws of 
the child's life in the Sunday-school and home, 
scarce anywhere can we discover any who have 
asked whether there are such things as the laws of 
the life of a man, whether there is such a thing, 
indeed, as the religious training of the adult. In 
practice the man is left to chance or, at best, to dis- 
connected appeals to intellect, emotions, and senses. 
In church service, Bible class, prayer meeting, and 
even in brotherhood or club, the thing desired and 
sought seems to be to keep him amused, to hold his 
attention, and to tie him, formally, mechanically al- 
most, to the activities or at least to the support, by 
presence and by subscription, of the church. Who 
has heard of any definite program adopted by a 
church for the orderly, progressive training of its 
grown men in the understanding of the religious 
life, in their appreciation and acceptance of their 
spiritual heritage, in their religious duties and serv- 
ice? The great leader of Christianity spent no 
small portion of his public life in the definite task 
of training a small group of adults. Under his 
educational activity phenomenal changes were 
wrought in these men, in breadth of vision and 
ideals, in development of unsuspected powers, and 
in personal elevation of character. They were adults 
when their training began, but they were brought 
from mediocrity to power. 



THE CHURCH WINNING MEN I9 

Once the church almost entirely neglected the 
child, waiting until the life period came in its ex- 
perience when by revivals and 
similar appeals to fear and other ^'^^pp^'J^j^^^^^^*'''^ 
emotions the lost lambs should be 
herded back into the fold by awesome crook or 
even by hounds that barked with sulphurous breath. 
Catastrophic experiences were relied upon to ac- 
complish the work neglected for years. A large 
proportion of the lambs refused, however, to be thus 
brought back; indeed, they did not then return at 
all, and so the church was compelled to spend her 
energies in repeated endeavors to win back these 
wanderers and, year after year, as they grew up 
into manhood, all that the church could do for 
them was to bid them repent and be converted. 
There were so many of these wanderers that the 
labor of winning them back absorbed her time and 
powers. Her case was like that of a man who, hav- 
ing to build a wall in so many hours, carelessly al- 
lowed all his bricks to fall from his wagon along 
the road, so that when the evening began he scarcely 
had time to go back and pick up the lost material, 
and so, though night fell, the work of construction 
was not even begun. 

In these later days the church has begun to stop 
the losses at the beginning; will she go on and 
learn the business of holding what she has gained 
and leading all on to full living? There appears to 
be an assumption that the axiom," Give me the chil- 



20 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

dren and the adults will take care of themselves," 
means that, if the religious training of the child be 
properly conducted, the man will care for his own 
complete religious development without further 
thought or effort on the part of the church. Is that 
true? If men, from infancy, are held to the church 
through the period of adolescence, will the church 
be able without further effort to hold them through 
the rest of their days ? It might seem as though that 
question would answer itself; men having acquired 
the life habit of religion, having long breathed the 
religious atmosphere, would habitually remain in it, 
refusing to leave it, and if it did not meet all their 
needs, they would proceed to supply any deficiencies 
themselves. True, the establishment of right habits, 
the chief end of the education of youth, will insure 
right acts to a large degree in the man. But life is 
more than habits. It may be determined from 
within, but it also depends on things without, not 
only on habits, but also on light, atmosphere, and 
nutrition. Even habits are but settled reactions to 
stimuli from without. Of what avail is it to culti- 
vate ideal tastes and appetites if no food shall be 
furnished for these? Some say, when all our youth 
shall know the right way, then all men v>^ill walk in 
it, and that accomplished fact will furnish all light 
and nutriment needed on the way. But we are not 
sure that all will walk in this way, nor if they did, 
would there be less necessity for providing formally 
for their sustenance. Since education is a continu- 



THE CHURCH WINNING MEN 21 

ous process through all the life, the church must care 
for every period of development, and must provide 
that which is needed by the man as well as that for 
the child. Given the success of the modern Sunday- 
school, we will have ere long a church of men. Are 
we ready for such a church ? Will we be able to pro- 
vide for the continuous development of its people? 
Certainly not without careful preparation and pro- 
vision. Provision is a matter of pre-vision. 

Here is a present emergency to be met. The men 
of our own generation are not in the churches. 
Everywhere religious agencies, the 

11 .1, 1 ^. Where are the Men ? 

churches especially, are lamentmg 
the lack of men. The present deficiency in the sup- 
ply of men for the ministry is paralleled by a defi- 
ciency In the supply of men for all ministry in or- 
ganized religion. Whenever this need is mentioned 
the custom seems to be to lay the blame on the men, 
to regard the absence of men from the church as 
evidence of the depravity of human nature, of 
which, of course, the male has the larger share. 

But had the church given even a superficial ge- 
netic study to man; had her workers looked back 
and seen this being as he really has been, noted 
even a little of the large heritage of tradition, cus- 
tom, and habit that is his, seen him active in the 
chase, a man of deed, bending the bow, or chipping' 
the arrow, pushing into wildernesses, dreaming 
dreams and making them into deeds, long ago we 
would have seen the cause of his disaffection and 



22 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

the last of the attempt to make this creature of 
deeds sit still for long and do nothing, and expect 
him to enjoy the process. If we could but get men 
to see that here is a piece of work worthy of any 
man, here is a world to be conquered for the ideal 
kingdom, here are dragons to be cast out and moun- 
tains of difficulty to be laid low, here is service to 
thrill and enthrall, men would answer to the call of 
the kingdom as they answered long ago to the cry 
of the Crusades; we would fling on one side our 
quibbles over opinions as to doctrines and historical 
details, and glowing with passion for humanity, 
lightened by high purposes we would find ourselves 
wondering where our old problems of getting the 
men were gone to. 

Winning men is a simple matter of knowing men 
as they are, having faith in men, meeting their real 
life needs, finding work fitting for them and provi- 
ding a virile, masculine, social atmosphere in which 
they will delight, and through which they will de- 
velop in power. 



CHAPTER III 

THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 

What actually are the churches doing for the re- 
ligious training of adult men? Here and there are 
churches in which at least some provision has been 
made for developing lives of men; but these are so 
few, the instances are so rare, as scarcely to change 
the condition as a whole. What is the average 
church doing? In how many churches is the re- 
ligious training of the adult men by educational 
methods a deliberate aim of the institution? How 
many churches have any definite educational policy 
which has been carefully considered by the leaders 
and which is understood, adopted, and pursued by 
the workers? How many have even come to ac- 
knowledge the wisdom and necessity of the adoption 
of educational methods of dealing with any of the 
lives in their care? Still less do we recognize the 
value of educational methods in dealing with men? 
Any person, familiar in even a meager degree with 
present conditions, would count it a work of super- 
erogation to present elaborate statistics to show that 
there is either an absolute disregard of the educa- 
tional method as applied to men or, at best, only 
feeble and haphazard endeavors to use this method. 

23 



24 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

I. Typical Survey. Actually the churches usu- 
ally provide: 

I. Services of Worship, affording (i) Emotional 
mid sensuous appeals, through ritual and liturgy, 
and also through architecture, painting, colors, 
music, with opportunities for limited vocal self- 
expression through the hymns, responses, and other 
parts of the " service." 

Consider the purpose for which any of the hymns 
are sung. In how many hymns can a man join 
without mental and conscientious reservations? 
Does a healthy, vigorous man really desire to " rise 
in the arms of faith " ? If he is conscious of a real 
work to do in this world, does he really desire to 
" rise to realms unknown " ? Is he not ordinarily 
conscious of the effeminacy of " Let me to thy 
bosom fly " and all that the hymns say about whis- 
pering, sleeping, resting, and sighing? In view of 
the fact that men are asked to sing at every service 
in many churches from three to five hymns designed 
either for women or written by sedentary saints, the 
wonder is that so many continue to go through the 
performance. 

So we might examine also the responsive read- 
ings, selected almost exclusively with a view to but- 
tressing the argument to be developed in the sermon, 
and seldom with any thought of their possibilities as 
inspiring expressions of religious ideals. What 
might be termed the passive parts of the service, 
such as instrumental music, and vocal music by the 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 2$ 

choir and organist, have been regarded largely as 
having only ornamental or entertaining functions. 
In fact, they have been thus used so exclusively as to 
defeat their own purposes, and the selections by the 
choir have frequently been most effective in the dis- 
cipline of mankind by the necessity for self-restraint 
during their rendition. 

(2) Intellectual appeals, through sermon or ad- 
dress, occasionally of an instructional character, but 
more frequently hortatory, with the deliberate and 
limited attempt to arouse the emotions. The min- 
istry of teaching through the pulpit is developing; 
but, naturally, it is developing slowly.^ There are 
few courses of sermons conceived with the intent of 
leading learners to see truth for themselves in all- 
round relations, and even these easily fall from 
teaching to preaching. A teaching ministry will not 
convert the pulpit into a lecture-desk and the min- 
ister into a Professor Aridity. 

It would be futile to attempt here any adequate 
discussion of the sermon as ministering to the re- 
ligious development of men. One could ask how 
often do the preachers really consider the men who 
come to their services Sunday after Sunday, and 
have a right to expect that their deepest needs will 
be met and their highest aspirations roused by the 
presentation of truth from the pulpit. They are men 

1 On the minister as a teacher, see " The Educational Ideal in the 
Ministry," by W. H. P. Faunce, p. i8f; also "The Improvement of 
Religious Education" (R. E. A., Vol. I), pp. 211, 218; "The Aims 
of Religious Education," pp. 158, 163; "The Materials of Religious 
Education," p. 76; "Education and National Character," p. 231. 



26 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

with burdens to bear, problems to meet, temptations 
to face. Some part of the message ought to be for 
them. Too often when the minister has sought to 
serve men, he has seemed to think that the one way 
this could be done was by delivering a series of lec- 
tures on economic or civic topics. Now, when a 
man has been dealing with precisely these things 
every day of the week, he needs that which goes far 
deeper than do they. 

Men need not so much formal, schematic indoc- 
trination, not even formal teaching in the pulpit of 
lessons on social and civic problems ; they need edu- 
cation through inspiration, deep draughts of the 
wells of life, not dust from tombs of long ago. 
They need to see the relation of the eternal truths 
and universal forces that have been working in the 
past to the problems and needs of to-day. A teach- 
ing ministry is not necessarily a ministry engaged in 
coldly presenting lessons; it is the ministry which 
deliberately sets before it the purpose of developing 
the lives of its people, which therefore studies and 
follows the educational method, pursues the educa- 
tional ideal. 

(3) Activities, for a limited number of adults, in 
official acts in connection with the services of wor- 
ship as, for example, the duties of ushers, deacons, 
or stewards, and such other special activities as the 
types of service may demand. These duties, being 
commonly performed by the same individuals for 
years, even to the end of a lifetime, tend to become 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 2^ 

merely perfunctory, and so to lose any possible 
educational value. 

II. Agencies of Instruction. Note particularly 
the Sunday-school, affording: 

1. Instruction, usually for a limited number of 
adults in groups, known as Bible classes, where, in 
a large number of Sunday-schools these groups of 
adults are required to study the same lesson as that 
which is being taught to the infants, and where the 
method of teaching is commonly that of talking, by 
the teacher. Occasionally adult life asserts itself, and 
the teacher has to guide, as best he may, a discussion 
which becomes general through the group. It is fre- 
quently evident that the teacher is distressed at such 
a digression from custom, failing to perceive that 
nature has asserted herself and demanded teaching 
and self-discovery of truth by the taught. 

It is encouraging to note, however, that a more 
general provision is being made for men in the Sun- 
day-school, that classes for adults are multiplying in 
number, and that for many of these suitable courses 
of study and opportunities for activities are being 
provided. The " Adult Bible Class Movement " as 
it is called, however, is reaching principally large 
numbers of the younger men, and it remains to be 
seen whether the needs of the adults, the mature 
men, will be met. 

2. Activities for a fezv adults in the conduct of 
the school and in teaching its classes. Undoubtedly 
many adults have learned a great deal more when 



28 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

they have become officers or teachers in the school 
than during all the years that they were in its 
classes. 

3. Social Opportunities. These are most clearly 
marked in the group meetings, such as women's 
mission circles, King's Daughters, aid societies, and 
sewing bands where the social gathering becomes an 
opportunity for study and for service at the same 
time. But nothing using similar opportunities has 
been provided for men, though it would be found 
not difficult to devise plans for them to engage in 
useful occupations, making things which would be 
of service and at the same time enjoying fellowship 
and instruction. 

III. Prayer Meetings. These, or similar 
informal gatherings, affording opportunity for 
thought, counsel, discussion, and expression may be 
considered. But bringing the educational test to this 
group of agencies and still carefully remembering 
the high educational values of such informal gath- 
erings, the character-development possibilities of 
prayer and song, of genuine testimony and mutual 
exhortation, the confession is unavoidable that the 
average prayer meeting does not meet the needs of 
a man's life. Those who attend do so mainly from 
a sense of duty. The exercises tend to become per- 
functory, the prayers stereotyped; one can be al- 
most certain of what the typical participant will say 
at any definite point in his petitions. The keenest 
test of the educational value of the prayer meeting 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 29 

is whether it leads its participants to do the things 
they pray over or talk about. That very result 
would kill many prayer meetings. 

IV. Responsibilities and Service, through 
duties undertaken in the control of the temporal 
affairs of the church. For those few who have the 
privileges of this type of service it constitutes one 
of the largest educational contributions of the 
church to the life of a man. 

Just here, in " ResponsibiHties and Service," the 
church finds her point of contact for the religious 
training of her men. It is an educational oppor- 
tunity. Here is the place where any pastor may 
begin by putting this test question to his organiza- 
tion and his plans : Do they provide a piece of worth- 
while work for every man, and do they look to 
aiding him to do that work well? 

The efficiency of the church in securing the re- 
ligious development of a man's life will depend a 
good deal less on the instruction it 

, V . , 1 .1 Elducation by Service 

gives to him than on the co-oper- ' 

ation it secures from him. Men need, not so much 
correct conceptions of life, though they cannot do 
without these — nor are they in danger of being re- 
quired to do so — as they need powerful stimuli to 
right conduct ; they need directing into the acts that 
as they are repeated will establish the habits of the 
right life. The church must be more of a laboratory 
even though that should involve its being a good 
deal less of an oratory. The only way to learn to 



30 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

live the right life, the Christian life, is to live that 
life, to do its deeds, to offer its service. That life is 
preeminently one of positive living, of activity, of 
doing; training in that life will be active, positive, 
volitional, of the type of executive righteousness. 
Certainly a large part of any normal religious life 
lies in religious work, in service for the kingdom; 
and, usually, through the church as the social instru- 
ment for the kingdom. This rendering of service is 
a need of the man just as truly as the service is 
needed by the church. When one is asked to do any 
proper work for religion the proposition should be 
regarded, not in the light of a favor to be conferred 
by the worker, but rather as an opportunity, a favor 
conferred by the church, or whatever organization it 
may be seeking your help, in permitting the develop- 
ment of powers by this means. The only people who 
do not believe in religious work are the people who 
do not try to do it. Every man will agree that all 
right and reasonable service for any religious or- 
ganization has been worth more to him personally, 
in character development, than it has been to any 
person whom he had sought to benefit. 

Young men need to do religious work ; they need 

not only to do all work in that spirit of service which 

makes it religious in the best sense, 

The Young Man's ^^^^ ^o Undertake definite specific 

Kestlessness . . , , . . 

responsibility and duties in connec- 
tion with religious organizations. Such service de- 
velops the powers of judgment, self-reliance, and 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 3 1 

initiative. The church often affords the first and 
determining opportunity for a man to exercise his 
own judgment, throws him on his own resources in 
some perplexing situation, and compels him to strike 
out in self-dependence. Perhaps his training and 
occupation have both left that selfhood undevel- 
oped ; he has been only a follower ; the pioneer spirit 
has been unawakened; but the church calls on him 
for a definite service, it commits to him a responsi- 
bility, it says to him, " make good in the eyes of 
these your brothers," and he finds himself in situ- 
ations where he has none to go before. It may 
sometimes seem that the church lays on some bur- 
dens that almost break the back, but beneath the 
burdens that bend us we rise to strength. The pity 
is that the burdens must be borne by so few, that 
there remain so many who have none of the benefits 
of bearing them. 

The church is the great laboratory for social and 
religious service. Here men must serve their ap- 
prenticeship and learn the trade of brotherly kind- 
ness and service. The church lacks efficient workers 
to-day because it does not train those it has. It 
neglects both the training of the youth who come 
up in its schools as potential servants and the train- 
ing of those who come into membership later, who 
are ignorant and altogether inexperienced in its 
service. Like every other organization, this one 
must either be self-perpetuating, or it must perish. 
The church must train its own workers. It must 



32 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

train the men and women who are of age to serve it. 
Churches complain of not having enough workers. 
How are the churches using those they have ? 

Is the church making full use of the energy it 

already possesses ? What are the facts ? One pastor 

has made a study of the extent to 

igures ^j^j^j^ ^j^g j^gj^ ^j.g used by the 

churches. The Rev. J. W. F. Davies, of Winnetka, 
111., in a paper presented at the Congregational As- 
sociation of Illinois, at Peoria, 111., May 26, 1908, 
showed how the churches of his own denomination, 
within a group small enough to be carefully ex- 
amined, were using their men, training them by 
service and for service. He tabulated the facts re- 
garding one hundred and four Congregational 
churches in Illinois. These one hundred and four 
churches reported seven thousand six hundred and 
two male members, and in answer to a questionaire 
the pastors stated that less than one-half of this 
number were doing anything at all in their church ; 
the precise figures were: Of seven thousand six 
hundred and two members, three thousand three 
hundred and fifty-eight " doing some work," four 
thousand two hundred and forty-four " doing noth- 
ing"; that is, forty-four per cent, were in service 
in some degree, while fifty-six per cent, were entire- 
ly idle, receiving no real benefit from the churches 
because taking only a passive attitude toward them. 
Analyzing the reports further we find that the 
three thousand three hundred and fifty-eight re- 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 33 

ported as active male members included five hundred 
and five serving in the choirs, four hundred and 
ninety-four serving as trustees, four hundred and 
eighty-five as ushers, and four hundred and fifty- 
one as deacons, a total of one thousand nine hundred 
and thirty-five definitely engaged in the administra- 
tion of the church services and its general business. 
It is quite likely that there would be a good many 
duplicates in these reports, one man holding several 
of these offices. But, approximately, one may say 
that the business of the churches was being con- 
ducted by about twenty-five per cent, of the male 
membership. 

In the same inquiry the question was asked as to 
the extent to which the male members were render- 
ing service in the Sunday-schools. The returns indi- 
cate that but a few over ten per cent. — seven hundred 
and seventy-three out of seven thousand six hun- 
dred and two — were working in these schools in any 
capacity. Nine out of every ten men in the churches 
were ignoring the Sunday-schools. Doubtless many 
of them were wondering why these schools remain 
so inefficient, while others were continuing to regard 
the compound " Sunday-school " as an expressive 
adjective of derision, knowing nothing beyond the 
Sunday-school of their own boyhood. That the per- 
centage in group of churches examined was not 
exceptional is shown by the fact that the same ratio 
holds for all the churches of that denomination In 
the State of Illinois as a whole; the three hundred 
c 



34 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

and fifty-one Congregational churches of Illinois 
have eighteen thousand and forty-seven male mem- 
bers, and only one thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-two men are reported as in the Sunday- 
schools in any active capacity. 

In response to inquiries as to any further activities 
for men in the churches, it was shown that out of 
seven thousand six hundred and two male members 
in the group first mentioned, three hundred and two 
were " doing personal work " ; this often, however, 
means " pretty much of nothing " ; six hundred and 
ten were engaged in other forms of church work, 
and two hundred and eighty-seven were counted as 
officers of men's leagues and similar organizations. 
The greater number thus counted were those who 
had already been reckoned with in the officers of 
regular church service, such as trustees, deacons, 
etc. Looking at the provision made for men's work 
by the church: out of the one hundred and four 
churches reporting, seventy-two had no means of 
training for boys or men outside of the Sunday- 
school and the young people's societies; thirty-two 
were attempting to do something for boys, though 
not stating any definite forms of activities, while 
fourteen had boys' clubs, three had special classes 
for boys, and two had " Knights of King Arthur " ; 
less than one-fourth of the churches were making 
any deliberate attempt really to train their youth or 
to employ their men in anything besides the Sunday- 
school and the young people's society. 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 35 

The conditions revealed by this inquiry in this 
group of churches is not exceptional ; other denom- 
inations show the same on examination. There are 
some States in the United States where not more 
than one or two churches of certain of the larger 
denominations are making any attempt to meet the 
real educational needs of their men. We are all too 
readily assuming that the adult man is beyond hope 
of transformation, too easily regarding him as one 
from whom little is to be hoped, save in rare 
instances, in the way of active service for the king- 
dom. We think thus, not only of the man outside 
the church, but of the man within, regarding it as 
a fortunate accident if here and there we find a 
man who, as we say, " is active in the church." It 
is not strange that there are so few in view of the 
fact that apparently the best we ever dare to hope 
of the average man is that he will be passive, sit 
quietly in his pew, and at least not disgrace the 
church by any overt acts of non-ethical character. 
We will never secure the services of men until the 
enlistment of the whole man, heartily, intelligently, 
and thoroughly, through his own normal activities 
and as an active, working person, in the activities 
of the church, is held as normal as breathing and 
eating. 

Educational Opportunities. There are many un- 
used opportunities in the general activities of the 
churches for the educational development of men. 
There is room for more volunteer workers. Men do 



36 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

not lay all the loads on the pastor because they are 
lazy ; it is because they have never been seriously in- 
vited to do worthy work; they have never had the 
opportunity to take responsibilities. Men are in the 
church like boys who get into a smithy or a carpen- 
ter's shop, a good deal more anxious to lend a hand 
than to sit still and watch and listen. 
" The Central Union Church, of Honolulu, ap- 
plies the plan of enlisting its men for definite 
service through what is called " The Men's 
League." Men join this league by specifically 
pledging themselves to work in certain sections. 
The names of these sections and the duties under 
each, which men agree to endeavor to perform, are 
both highly suggestive and interesting. They are: 

1. Friendship Section. Seek the acquaintance of 
the young men of the city not now members of the 
church or the league, especially those who have re- 
cently come to Honolulu, and invite them to the 
meetings and into the membership of the league. 

2. Social Section. Under the direction of the 
leader and in co-operation with the other members 
undertake a systematic study of the social conditions 
of Honolulu for the purpose of discovering and re- 
porting to the league new lines of social service. 

3. Civic Section. For the study of the civic prob- 
lems of this city and territory, and for the ad- 
vancement of the cause of good government. 

4. Religious Work. To assist the ministers and 
Christian workers of the city in some one of the 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 2)7 

existing religious enterprises or to help organize 
new needed agencies. 

5. Sunday-school Section. To serve in the Sun- 
day-school either as officer or teacher, and join 
the normal-school class. 

6. Bible Study Section. Join, attend, induce 
others to attend a Sunday morning men's Bible 
class for the study of the Bible along modern lines. 

7. Bible Representation Section. To assist the 
leader in this section in presenting representations 
of Bible scenes and incidents. 

8. Musical Section. To add to the effectiveness 
of our church music, (i) By joining a Sunday- 
school orchestra or playing at special services. (2) 
By informing the section leader a. of any voice that 
may fill a possible vacancy in the choir; &. of good 
music heard elsewhere; c. of musical visitors in 
town who may give assistance; d. of any helpful 
criticisms or suggestions. 

9. Sunday Evening Section. Co-operate in ar- 
ranging for special programs and in securing a 
large attendance of men at the Sunday evening 
service. 

10. Midweek Service Section. Help to make the 
midweek service a real success. 

11. Welcoming Section. Ushering, giving out 
calendars, keeping on the lookout for strangers, in- 
troducing them to the ministers and others, en- 
deavor to increase the spirit of good fellowship in 
our church. 



38 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

Suggested Activities. Note some of the kinds 
of things that men can do : Regular offices, as trus- 
tees, deacons, stewards. They will serve as male 
visitors for the sick, or as general visitors. They 
will follow up absentees and lost members and at- 
tendants. They will take charge of accounts, of 
membership lists, of campaigns for extension, etc. 
Usually there is room for more committees in 
churches ; let the young men serve their apprentice- 
ship under competent guidance in caring for church 
property, accounts, finances, and other details. One 
may institute practice work of many kinds. Then, 
there is the general publicity work; many a man 
may find new avenues for business efficiency here. 
They may engage in work with boys and with 
young men. There might well be in the church 
training schools for " deacons," " trustees," etc. 
There are many means of developing men by 
training them for and directing them in teaching, as 
in " continuation schools " conducted by churches in 
needy districts, in " science and art classes/' by 
gathering groups of boys and men for the study of 
civics, politics, " life problems," the organization of 
model cities, civic clubs, debating societies. There 
is good work to be done in training classes for 
teachers. There is need of careful work in plan- 
ning and conducting special courses in connection 
with the young people's society. There is work 
worth while in the organization and management 
of the Sunday-school. Then, there is all the great 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 39 

extension work of the church, the organization and 
direction of the forces of the church for service in 
the community, the relief of distress, the care of 
pubHc welfare, the improvement of conditions in 
morals, hygiene, politics, and education, making the 
church efficient in doing what her Master did — 
going about doing good and causing the kingdom 
still to come. 

When we ask why there are so few men engaged 
in religious work through the churches, an an- 
swer is readily found which has 
two aspects: because they have The Bw and the 
never learned to do religious work 
and now have no opportunity afforded for learning. 
Usually a man has too much common sense to 
attempt the conduct of a business he does not 
understand. We lack the services of men because 
we have never trained boys. As surely as the 
curriculum of the day-school is being modified and 
determined by the life-needs and interests of the 
students, so must the Sunday-school curriculum 
come under the determinative influence of similar 
considerations. The Sunday-school ought to lead 
the life into its spiritual fulness, adjustment, and 
service. For the purposes of the last mentioned, it 
ought to be the training school of the church. It 
is doubtless well for children and youth to learn 
of the zealous activities of an Ezra and a Nehemiah, 
but unless we can also indicate to them the oppor- 
tunities for the expression of the same spirit in re- 



40 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ligious service in our day, the teaching of the facts 
of these Hves and the impression made by these 
ideals becomes harmful rather than helpful. 

V. The Training School of the Church. The 
church expects its youth to come into church fellow- 
ship from the Sunday-school; it is recognizing the 
need of training for an intelligent approach to that 
fellowship through the general arrangement of the 
school curriculum up to the period when affiliation 
with the church usually takes place, and by the pro- 
vision of special classes of catechumens. But with 
church-membership ought to come church service; 
the one is really only nominal and soon but an 
empty or even hypocritical alliance, without the 
other. If the church expects intelligent service, it 
ought to train its servants. Boys, and girls too, 
would be a good deal more interested in the facts 
and ideals of modern church organization, service, 
activities, endeavors, in the romance of missions, in 
the accounts of the pioneers who pushed into our 
new regions, who helped subdue our frontier, who 
braved perils by land and sea in many regions than 
we find them to be interested in the accounts of 
similar endeavors and activities in the first Christian 
century. Why should it seem more important to us 
that the youth should know of the Acts of the 
Apostles than that they should know of the acts 
of the modern disciples, and should learn how 
themselves to do such deeds? The Bible appears to 
the average child as a museum of dried-up data; 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 4I 

it can only be made real and living as it finds con- 
tact with life to-day ; the need is to read the expres- 
sion of the religious spirit of long ago in the light 
of the expression of that spirit in life to-day. Is it 
any less reasonable to hope to make intelligent citi- 
zens without the study of civics in the schools than 
it is to hope to have active church men without 
training in religious service and its principles in the 
religious schools? The chapters on the Sunday- 
school describe its possibilities in further detail. 

VI. A Policy Suggested. What constructive 
policy can be suggested for the churches to follow 
in the training of their men, especially for efficiency 
in religious service? 

First. The ministers must be trained as educators. 
The men in the theological seminaries are to be 
placed in charge of educational agencies ; they are 
to direct the work, not only of such evidently edu- 
cational agencies as Sunday-schools, but the work of 
the whole church as an educational agency. The 
seminary gives many courses in the Bible and 
in church history; it spends time on homiletics and 
on pastoral duties, but in only rare instances has it 
caught sight of that single unifying purpose which 
runs all through the work of the church, and which 
is the secret of the co-ordination of all studies in 
the seminary, that the church is engaged in educa- 
tion and that all that the minister learns in his pro- 
fessional school should be governed by this fact. 
This will mean a great deal more than giving him 



42 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

brief courses in Sunday-school devices, teaching 
him the tricks of " Sunday-school success." It will 
mean, first of all, that somewhere in a man's train- 
ing for the profession of the ministry he is 
thoroughly grounded in psychology and in the 
principles of pedagogy. If he would lead out the 
lives of men, he must know the laws of their lives. 

Secondly. The minister must survey his work 
from the viewpoint of the educator. He can better 
afford to lose the advantage of ancient precedent 
than to be turned from his real purpose by it. If he 
has been trained as an educator, he. will be able to 
work out the problem of his own church as it pre- 
sents itself. Each church is, in no small measure, 
a problem peculiar to itself. No time is wasted by 
a man, settling on a new field, which is spent in 
carefully planning his work into educational unity. 

Thirdly. The minister must lead his people into 
educational service. He must make plain to them 
the part of education in the development of the 
religious life and in the accomplishment of the 
work of the church. He must educate those who 
are to be his co-workers. A new sense of the worth 
of the church, a new and strong appeal for self- 
investment in its services comes to those who clearly 
see it in this new dignity of a definite purpose, a 
place that fits into the scheme of all our living. To 
most of its people the church is either an accident 
or an inheritance ; its reason for being is seldom very 
clear. You can hardly secure intelligent co-oper- 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 43 

ation from those who are asked to work in igno- 
rance; there is no enthusiasm Hke that of intelH- 
gence. One gets a new grip on himself and a new 
motive for work when he sees that he is really doing 
something definite, practical, worth while. The 
work of the church becomes such when we see that 
it is a work of the development of character into the 
fulness of its possibilities and powers by steadily fol- 
lowing the laws under which character is developed. 

Fourthly. The various activities of the church 
will be studied and tested from the viewpoint of 
their value in the development of the lives of 
those who are engaged in them and of those for 
whom they are conducted. Duplication will be 
eliminated; co-operation in the aim of the church 
will be secured, and balance between the means of 
meeting different needs will be maintained. Pro- 
vision will be made for adequate, continuous, graded 
instruction, for stimulating social, spiritual atmos- 
phere, for natural, appropriate expressional activ- 
ities, and for those personal relationships which 
train to habits of adjustment and right relations in 
the kingdom the church seeks to realize. 

But it will not do to leave all the responsibility 
with the minister; we have done that too long. 
After all, a church is what its people 
are ; it is, whatever its type of gov- Dgnocracy in 
ernment may be, a democratic insti- 
tution. If the churches have failed to minister to 
the lives of men, if they have failed to understand 



44 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

and to fulfil their educational mission, it is because 
the men in the churches have not given the matter 
sufficient thought; they have been willing to take 
things as they found them. Conscious of many 
shortcomings, and seeing many evidences of inef- 
ficiency, they have preferred the easy way of critici- 
zing the somewhat impersonal thing called a church 
to the more difficult way of deliberate reconstruc- 
tion. If the church is to lead its men to fulness of 
character and to train them for efficient service, 
these very men will have to get together and care- 
fully consider what such a piece of work involves. 

A tremendous increase of power would come to 

any church if its men would but set themselves to 

. the reconstruction of its plans and 

A New Revival . i. r i.t, • i 

equipment for the special pur- 
poses of social efficiency with the same earnest- 
ness, thoroughness, and concentration which they 
would give to the organization and equipment of 
some business for a specific purpose. The kind of 
a revival we need most of all in the church to-day 
is not an attempt to make us feel again the fresh- 
ness of past enthusiasms, but a beginning of new 
life by the discovery anew of the real work of the 
church and the principles on which it may be ac- 
complished. The realization of a definite, clearly 
conceived purpose for the church which would lead 
men to think of it as being here to accomplish cer- 
tain specific ends would do more to win men to its 
work, to its support, than any other single thing. If 



THE CHURCH TRAINING MEN 45 

then, with that purpose clearly seen, it was also as 
clearly understood that the purpose was realizable 
on plain, practical principles, that you were not 
working in the dark, but were doing something that 
was as certain as to its results as any investment of 
time and energy according to business principles, 
we would find men willing to give themselves to 
that which would thus commend itself to their judg- 
ment. One can imagine nothing which would 
bring so marked a change in the life of the church 
as a clear comprehension on the part of all its 
people of its specific work in the community and 
the general acceptance of certain definite laws or 
principles according to which that work was to be 
accomplished. 

Let the men of a church get together and talk 
these matters over. Let them confer as they would 
regarding any business proposition. 
Let them work down to a clear Profitable 

Conrerences 

Statement of the purpose of the 
church ; let them discuss the situation until they see 
clearly the work that men may do in the church. 
One church recently asked its men to come together 
on Sunday morning at ten o'clock and talk candidly, 
seriously, and explicitly on the question, '' Why 
should we have a Sunday evening service?" The 
men met and discussed the question in a thoroughly 
frank, unreserved manner. The result was felt im- 
mediately in the clearing up of misconceptions and, 
above all, the men felt that the officers of the church 



46 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

meant business; they were determined either to 
make the evening meeting worth while or to clear 
it away as obsolete. Following this the men were 
asked to meet and discuss, in the same manner, the 
question of the type of service suitable for Sunday 
evenings in that community. The free discussion 
that took place bore even better results than the first 
one, for, as men worked down to the real needs of 
that neighborhood, definite plans were suggested for 
meeting these needs; then committees were ap- 
pointed to carry out these plans and since the series 
of studies that grew out of that first discussion 
these plans have been in operation. The result is 
that the Sunday evening service has been trans- 
formed from a perfunctory performance to a hand- 
ful of the faithful into gatherings that fairly fill the 
church because they meet actual conditions, while 
the men who worked out these plans feel keenly the 
responsibility for carrying them out, and for en- 
listing others in them. 

No time is lost that is spent in leading men to 
clear-cut conceptions of the work of the church, 
and of the laws according to which it must be done. 



CHAPTER IV 

A LAY MINISTRY 

Were the situation in Great Britain the object of 
our study, we would have to include one other op- 
portunity for religious development either offered 
by the churches or growing directly out of their 
life — that is, in lay preaching. Practically every 
church of any size, at least in England and Wales, 
and a large number in Scotland and in Protestant 
Ireland, will be found to have one or more men 
known as " local preachers " who, while working 
for their living during the week, take great pleasure 
and doubtless receive much benefit, from preaching 
in mission stations in outlying villages once or 
twice on Sunday. These men may be artisans, me- 
chanics, clerks, or shopkeepers ; some are poor, 
and some are in easy circumstances; some must 
walk many miles to their preaching stations, while 
others may go in their own traps. Few have been 
able to devote any special portion of their years 
exclusively to preparation for the ministry of 
preaching. One hardly ever finds a man who has 
even attended a "college for ministers " among 
them. Some pursue special courses of reading, in 
several denominations the courses being prescribed 

47 



48 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

by the church officials. In other instances the men 
have placed themselves voluntarily under pastors 
or other tutors for occasional instruction and for 
direction of their reading, while still others band 
themselves together into societies, loose organiza- 
tions covering certain fixed territory, following cer- 
tain lines of informal study and holding regular 
meetings for conferences and discussion. 

While there is a danger that the small man will be 

encouraged to undue self-importance as he sallies 

forth on preaching bent, in garments 

The Lay Preacher's ^^^^ ^g closely as possible to the cleri- 

iemptahons . . 

cal lines, or that persistent public 
exhortation without the foundation of general 
preparation and the balance that comes from op- 
portunities for perennial preparation shall develop 
the marks of the pious prig, all this is more than 
compensated for by the advantages of the system. 
Not to take account of the great gain of having so 
many otherwise pastorless stations in small villages 
regularly supplied, nor to take account of the pe- 
culiar advantages to the people of a ministry by 
volunteer, unpaid workers of their own class, these 
men are placed under the stern and beneficial dis- 
cipline of circumstances. The lay preacher may be 
tempted to preen himself under the adulation of his 
little flock on Sunday, but he cannot forget that he 
must come back to the mill or the shop on Monday ; 
that fellow-workmen have knowledge of his Sunday 
words, and that their keen eyes and often cruel 



A LAY MINISTRY 49 

words will keep him on his mettle, both for con- 
formity in conduct to the ideals he has publicly pro- 
claimed, and also to improvement in both matter 
and manner of his preaching. 

Of course a large measure of benefit also comes 
to these lay preachers by the necessity under which 
they are placed, at least in the cases 

of those who take their work "^^ H^ Preacher's 

Advantages 

seriously, of makmg specific prepa- 
ration regularly on certain subjects for public ut- 
terances. In the denominations requiring courses 
of reading and study, as in the primitive Methodist 
and the Wesleyan Methodist, even greater advan- 
tages accrue to those who are thus compelled to 
follow systematically the prescribed courses for a 
period of several years. Not only is a large amount 
of information secured, and still more, helpful dis- 
cipline undergone but, if the work is done during 
the period of early manhood, as is usually the case, 
habits of study and careful thought are acquired 
which ought to count for the subsequent develop- 
ment of the life. 

The opportunity for religious culture by activity 
in lay preaching is not entirely lacking in the 
United States, while in portions of Canada the situ- 
ation is very much like that in Great Britain, large 
numbers of churches being entirely dependent upon 
voluntary lay preachers. 

There are evidences of increasing interest In the 
possibilities of lay preaching, and a growing appre- 



50 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ciatlon of its usefulness, both for the maintenance 
of churches which otherwise would be compelled to 
close their doors, and for the religious development 
of those whom this system can employ. 

In England and in Wales there are some fifty 
thousand lay preachers in the Nonconforming 
churches, and there are probably half this num- 
ber of " lay readers " in the Established Church. 
William E. Gladstone, England's famous premier, 
often officiated in the parish church at Hawarden, 
while many of the men most prominent in public 
life in England to-day honor themselves with 
similar service. In the Free Churches in England, 
lay preachers outnumbered pastors in 1901 as fol- 
lows: Methodists: 2,202 ministers, 19,956 lay 
preachers. Primitive Methodists: 1,099 ministers, 
16,697 ^ay preachers. Congregationalists : 2,886 
ministers, 5,050 lay preachers. Figures for the 
Baptists are not at hand, but they would show about 
the same relatively as the Congregationalists. 
There, it is a poor church that has not several men, 
in almost any grade of society, who never expect to 
become ministers, but who gladly give their eve- 
nings and Sundays to preaching the word in remote 
villages and at mission stations. They are not 
embryonic clergymen; they will stick to bench or 
office till they die. 

In the United States nearly every lay preacher 
has his eye on the " Rev." ; almost all our licentiates 
are students for the ministry. It is well they should 



A LAY MINISTRY 5 1 

be, but how many others there are, who cannot 
leave their present employment, but who might still 
be of immense value to the kingdom were they 
trained and encouraged. Some pastors rather dis- 
courage these men, fearing to lose them from their 
audiences; others dread rivalry to their peculiar 
prestige as preachers. Professionalism often stands 
as a great barrier between the church and the work- 
shop. The working people will listen to the work- 
ing man preacher to-day just as they did at the be- 
ginning of this era. Dr. Cunningham Geikie said on 
this subject, in a personal letter, written some years 
ago : " The number of persons who get a living, 
better or worse, from the labors of others, while they 
give themselves to what they honestly think the 
most complete service of the Master, is a great 
point against such agency in the mind of vast num- 
bers; a man who serves the Master while he sup- 
ports himself is, in the general opinion of good and 
bad alike, a far nobler character than one who lives 
by his religious services." 

We protest against sacerdotalism in others, and 
are in danger of fostering it in ourselves with our 
notions that no man is authorized to pronounce the 
benediction unless he has been duly ordained. The 
sanctified heart is the great prerequisite to the Re- 
deemer's service. The true ministry cannot be con- 
fined to " the ministry " any more than the work of 
that Spirit without which all professional prepa- 
ration is vain can be confined to the pulpit. But the 



52 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

trouble is not here so much as in that the pastor 

underestimates the willingness and ability of his 

young men, or that he is too busy to train and direct 

them. Yet how easily the outlying deserted villages 

might be fed if this agency were systematically, 

sympathetically cultivated. 

One cannot but wonder that lay preaching has 

not come into greater use in the United States. 

There are a large number of men 

Why Not in the ^f sufficient culture and g^eneral re- 
united States ? . 1 1 1 . 1 • r 

hgious and theological mformation 

who would be happy to do this kind of w^ork. The 
preparation necessary for preaching- and conducting 
services would add new interest to their lives, and 
would start them on new lines of investigation and 
study. These men are in some instances preach- 
ing where they ought to be teaching. That is, they 
are conducting Bible classes and preaching sermons 
every Sunday to groups of men and women. Still 
others exhibit powers of oratory in connection with 
clubs and political organizations. It is worth while 
to remember too, that pulpit eloquence may be of 
less value after all than other abilities, in the care 
of small churches. Few things would delight many 
able men more than to be permitted to organize and 
conduct the activities of a small church. On the 
other hand, there are both in the city and the coun- 
try many churches too small or too feeble to sup- 
port a pastor, which could be cared for by such lay 
workers. 



CHAPTER V 

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 

There was a time once when it could properly be 

^^^^' In the world's broad field of battle, 
In the bivouac of life, 
You will find the Christian soldier 
Represented by his wife. 

That day has passed. Men are in the church and 
men are in the Sunday-school. That school itself 
is in the adolescent stage of not knowing what it is 
doing, nor why it is trying to do anything that 
does not have an adult department. The accession 
of men to the Sunday-school in large numbers has 
been so recent a development that we have hardly 
adjusted ourselves to it; and it has been not un- 
common for schools to assume that if they could do 
two things — first, set up an adult department, and 
secondly, somehow induce a large number of men to 
come into the school — then the Sunday-school had 
discharged its whole duty to the adult man. 

The Sunday-school has a service to render to 
men. Since its purpose is the training and de- 
velopment of lives to the fulness of Christian char- 
acter and to efificiency of Christian service, it must 
continue to train those lives until they have reached 

53 



54 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

that fulness and efficiency. Its most important 
work doubtless will be with children, since if the 
training is not given then it will never be given at 
all. But we have been making in the Sunday-school 
the capital error of turning developing lives adrift 
before they have come to anything like maturity. 
Somewhere in the church there ought to be provi- 
sion made for teaching young men and adults how 
to do the work of the laity in the church. We com- 
plain that there are so few men at work in the 
churches, but we fail to provide for their training in 
the work we are expecting them to do. The princi- 
pal business of the adult department of the Sun- 
day-school should be the training of men and wo- 
men for intelligent, faithful lay service in the church 
and kingdom of God. The primary need of the 
adult department is a clear conception of the things 
that it has to do, a recognition that the training of 
men is not the same thing as the training of 
children. Once we made the mistake of trying to 
educate children by the methods suited to adults. 
There is similar danger to-day that we shall try to 
educate the adult by the methods we now discover 
to be suitable to children. Nothing could be more 
absurd than to expect that self-respecting men will 
stand up in the Sunday-school and heartily join in 
singing, *' I'm a Little Dewdrop." If the adult 
department is to provide religious education for 
men, it must be adapted to men. It must meet the 
real needs of men. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 55 

If the Sunday-school is to make its proper con- 
tribution to the work of training adult men re- 
ligiously, it must meet the needs of these men in 
three ways: 

First. By providing suitable courses of study, 
and by arranging all the curricula with the full life 
of the adult in mind ; secondly, by training for serv- 
ice and activity; and, thirdly, by providing suitable 
forms of activity and kinds of social and religious 
work for men. 

The curriculum of the school will be based on 
the life needs of the man. It will find contact 
steadily with his deepest and most 
real interests. It will minister to The Course of Study 

for Men 

his life. 

There is need of a large number of text-books 
and outline courses of study for adults in classes in 
the Sunday-school, and in similar institutions. The 
International Committee of the Young Men's 
Christian Association has put out a number of 
text-books, some of which are suitable for such 
classes. It is not so difficult to find suitable text- 
books for study in the Old Testament and New 
Testament as it is to find those which deal with 
ethics, with modern social problems and duties, 
and with church institutions and religious service. 
Again one turns to the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation which has made the most serious attempt 
of any organization to meet the need for such text- 
books. In the section on the Young Men's Chris- 



56 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

tian Association, we treat more carefully the matter 
of suitable text-books for young men and, generally 
speaking, what can be used in the religious educa- 
tional department of the Young Men's Christian 
Association can be used in the adult classes in the 
Sunday-school. 

It is quite important that the courses of study 
adopted for adult classes shall be those which grow 
out of the needs of the men, and that the work 
offered in these classes shall be entirely elective. 
As an example of the provision now being made, 
the curricula of the adult departments of several 
Sunday-schools and organizations are given: 

I. Disciples' School Boston, Mass. A graduate 
class for the special study of Modern Religious 
Teachers ; an adult class meeting for Bible study at 
10.15 each Sunday morning; ethical lessons to be 
associated with the Bible lessons from Sunday to 
Sunday, not to stand as a separate course. 

II. Teachers' College, Columbia University, New 
York. Graduate Courses (Electives), adults. Single 
Bible books; Apocryphal books; other religious 
masterpieces; literary study of the Bible; New 
Testament Greek ; Biblical History ; Historical Par- 
allels. Christian Evidences; Pagan Religions; 
Church Work, Settlements, Charities; Sunday- 
school Teaching, Personal Work, Civic and In- 
dustrial Problems. History of Theology; Church 
History, Mission History. 

This curriculum is followed essentially in the 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 57 

Model Sunday-schools of Union Theological Sem- 
inary and Teachers' College, Columbia University, 
and the First Union Presbyterian Church, New 
York City; the Presbyterian Church, New Ro- 
chelle. New York, and many other Sunday-schools 
that might be mentioned. 

III. University Congregational Church, Chicago. 
Graduate Department. Aim: To enlarge the 
knowledge, appreciation, and practice of the Bible, 
of Christianity, and of the nature and obligation of 
religion and morality. 

First Year. The Origin and Transmission of the 
Bible. Second Year. The History of the Christian 
Church. Third Year. Christianity in Relation to 
the Modern Sciences (Biology, Psychology, Phi- 
losophy, and Ethics). 

The courses in this department vary from year to 
year, covering a wide range of historical, biblical, 
ethical, religious, and theological study. 

Text-books : In the absence of suitable text-books, 
special courses are being prepared. Reference books 
are used. 

IV. Friends^ Central Educational Committee, 
Great Britain. vSenior classes for Sunday-school 
teachers and workers, reading circles, and Bible 
classes. Age, 16-20 and upward. In this course the 
following plan of material is followed: i. The 
growth of moral ideas and of the Messianic hope in 
the Old Testament, with some account of the way 
in which its books were compiled. 2. The signifi- 



58 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

cance of the life, work, and teaching of Christ, as 
recorded in the Gospels, and especially in the Gospel 
of John. 3. The Apostle Paul, his personality, 
work, and teaching. 4. Studies of other New Testa- 
ment writings. 5. The development of Christianity, 
and especially of the ideas of church and priesthood 
during the first three centuries, with some notice of 
the formation of the canon and of non-canonical 
writings. Outline of subsequent work of the 
Church in Western Europe; the Reformation and 
the Puritan Movement; the Rise and History of 
the Society of Friends. 

V. The Official Curriculum of the Sunday-school 
Federation. " As adopted after Revision and Refer- 
endum by the Majority of Diocesan Organizations 
in Membership with the Federation." Electives: 
Church History; English and American and Mod- 
ern Missions. General, Diocesan, and Parish 
Church Organizations and Work. Typical forms 
of the Christian Social Service. Study of Apostolic 
Writings. Making of the Bible. Christian Ethics ; 
or, A Teacher-training Course. 

VI. St. Agnes' Chapel, Trinity Parish, New 
York. Postgraduate Course. Course A — Bible 
Study. Pentateuch; Historical Books; Hagiog- 
rapha; Prophets, Major and Minor; The Apocry- 
pha; The Gospels; Acts; Epistles, and Revelation. 
Course B — Church History. General; English; 
American Missions. Course C — The Theory and 
Practice of Teaching. Child Study. Sunday-school 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 59 

Organization; Administration; Graduating; Curric- 
ulum; Text-books; Methods, and Material. Guilds 
and Societies ; Christian Activities ; Sociological and 
Economic Questions. 

VII. Armour Mission Sunday-school, Chicago. 
Elective Courses: Christian Institutions (members 
of the class are to visit such institutions as they 
can); Practical ReHgion; Practical Ethics; Church 
History; Great Leaders of the World; Religion of 
the Poets. 

VIII. Congregational Church, Winnetka, Illi- 
nois. The College Years. Aim: To lead to the 
formation of life principles. 

. First year, age 18-19. Organized Christianity. 
Second year, age 19-20. Comparative Religion. 
Third year, age 20-21. Christian Conduct. 
(Ethics.) Fourth year, age 21-22. Christian Be- 
liefs. (Theology.) Graduate Department. Adults. 
Aim: To enlarge the knowledge of the Bible, of 
Christianity, and of the nature and obligation of re- 
ligion and morality. Here belong all the special 
courses and lectures on the Bible, on Missions, on 
Church History, on Social Service, and every theme 
which is to be considered from the religious point 
of view. An adult class meets immediately after 
the morning church service, studying " The New 
Appreciation of the Bible," by Selleck. Lectures 
are also given in this department. 

IX. Hyde Park Baptist Sunday-school, Chicago. 
The Adult Division. This division holds its sessions 



60 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

from 10 a. m. till 10.45 a* ^-i the instruction 
afforded being as follows : 

Men's Class, Religious Leaders in American 
History. 

Women's Class. Practical Religion as Taught 
in the Epistle of James. 

Young Men's Class. Old Testament Prophecy. 

Young Women's Class. The Gospel of John. 

X. Old South Church, Boston. The Story of 
Bible Literature, Introductory : What we have to ac- 
count for: 

1. Foundations: (i) The Hebrew Genius; (2) 
The Hebrew Heritage of Ideas. 

2. The Formative Centuries: (3) Literary Be- 
ginnings and Remainders ; (4) Keeping Touch with 
Experience; (5) Awakening of the Literary Sense; 
(6) The Golden Creative Age. (7) The Struggle 
of the Prophets. 

3. The People of a Book: (8) Discipline of Exile 
and Dispersion; (9) Resurgence of the Prophetic 
and Lyric; (10) The Might of a Code; (11) The 
Ripening of Wisdom. 

4. The New Era: (12) The Son of man; (13) 
The Literature of Announcement; (14) The Liter- 
ature of Interpretation; (15) The Vision of Future 
Things. Course taught by Prof. John F. Genung. 

XL The following outline is reprinted from the 
circular of the Men's Bible Class in the Hyde Park 
Presbyterian Church, Chicago. The topics were 
treated in that class at the Sunday-school hour. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 6l 



Social Problems in Chicago 

During the previous years social problems in gen- 
eral have been discussed. It is felt that we are now 
ready to discuss the social problems of Chicago in 
particular. Very few of us know the conditions in 
our own city as we should know them. Such 
knowledge makes for effective citizenship. This 
will mean the collection of much local material from 
various sources, in which it is expected that the 
class will assist. From the numerous social prob- 
lems that are conspicuous in Chicago the following 
tentative list has been suggested for investigation 
and discussion during the coming year: 

1. Our Foreign Population: (i) The conspicuous 
foreign colonies and their activities. (2) Foreign 
ideals of citizenship. (3) Exclusion laws. (4) 
The church and the foreigner. 

2. Woman in Industry: (i) Working women. 
(2) Women's wages. 

3. The Housing Question: (i) Congestion in 
Chicago. (2) Causes of congestion. 

4. The Marriage Question: (i) Facts as to di- 
vorce. (2) Causes of divorce. (3) Social purity. 

5. Civic Corruption: (i) Machines and bosses. 
(2) Causes of corruption. (3) Proposed reforms. 

6. The City : ( i ) Its menace to health, to morals, 
to politics. (2) Its opportunity, socially, politically, 
and to the individual. (3) The standard of living. 

It is understood that any of these topics may be 



62 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

omitted or new ones introduced as the interest and 
city contact of the class may determine. 

Secondly. The Sunday-school will meet the needs 
of men by training them for the work they are to 
do for the church and the kingdom. 

It will be noted that while there are a number of 

extra-biblical courses in these curricula for adults, 

little attention is paid to the prepa- 

Training for Church j-^^Jq^j ^f ^^^ £qj. definite religious 

service. There is need for courses 
and rather elementary text-books in such subjects 
as these: The History of our own Denomination; 
The Officers of our Church, their Duties and Re- 
sponsibilities ; Methods of Church Work; Church 
Support and Extension; Our Denominational Ac- 
tivities ; The Sects and Churches. 

Within the past few years, splendid provision has 
been made for the study of the missionary activ- 
ities of the churches under the impetus of the Young 
People's Missionary Movement. Many of the text- 
books prepared are suited to use by classes com- 
posed of adults. The next step should be the prepa- 
ration of courses in church service for laymen. 

We have no right to expect men to do things for 
the kingdom if we are not showing them how these 
things are to be done. Mr. Jones is elected trustee 
of the Seventh Avenue Church. Mr. Jones has 
never seen a trustee save from afar; he knows as 
much about the duties, prerogatives, and responsi- 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 63 

bilities of church trustees as he knows about the 
inner mechanism of a woman's mind. The writer, 
recently addressing a representative meeting of men, 
composed largely of church officers, asked a series 
of practical questions as to the duties of trustees of 
a church, and invited answers to simple questions 
on the legal responsibilities of such officers, without 
finding one man who really knew anything about 
the relation of such officers to the church. The 
same was found to be true, and is true nearly every- 
where, as to any other officer in the church. Still 
greater and more serious is the need for training as 
to methods of church work, as to the principles, 
physiological and pyschological lying at the basis of 
any work with human beings. If the work of the 
kingdom is to be done by laymen, these laymen have 
a right to demand that the agencies of the kingdom 
shall be organized for aiding them to do that work 
intelligently, efficiently, in a manner as nearly ex- 
pert as is possible with amateur service. 

The churches need workers increasingly efficient. 
The age will continue to make greater demands on 
this institution. Men are enlarging their powers in 
other fields, why not in this one? The church 
ought to make provision for the continuous train- 
ing of her men that they may be fit for her new 
and greater duties. The man who is alive is never 
too old to grow ; he never ceases to desire to learn. 
The best evidence that any man is educated is that 
he is wondrously moved by a passion to learn. He 



64 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

only is educated who is not yet educated. The men 
in the churches are men who want to know; the 
appetite for development needs only to be awakened. 
Actual tests show that courses of study in prob- 
lems of the religious life and service rightly handled 
never fail to attract men in growing numbers. 

The training of the young for religious service 

in the Sunday-schools ought, of course, to have a 

wider purpose than their prepara- 

^''^^Liff^'*'" tion for distinctively church work; 
it ought to include their training, 
both in theory and in practice, for all types of 
religious service ; it ought to embrace both the study 
of and participation in the activities of modern 
philanthropies and all movements for social better- 
ment. It is a good deal more a shame to our 
modern spiritual life when a youth does not know 
of the settlements and the philanthropic agencies of 
his own city than when we discover that he does 
not know just who Amos or Boaz was. Every 
Sunday-school has many maps of the Holy Land 
hanging on its walls; some schools give much at- 
tention to training children in drawing similar maps. 
It will be a great pity if these children come to ma- 
turity thinking that the only holy land is one they 
will never see; indeed, one that, to them, exists 
only in history ; or, if they shall be able to reproduce 
its outlines and be unable to reproduce or express 
the facts of their own county or city ward. It is 
well to trace the feet of the Man of Nazareth as he 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 65 

went about doing good; but that exercise is a hol- 
low mockery unless we also learn to know the way 
we would ourselves go through our city streets or 
along our highways if we would follow him in do- 
ing good. 

It is time that the education of the youth relig- 
iously faced forward with some sufficient regard to 
the fact that these boys and girls 
will soon be men and women on Educating for 

Life 

whom will fall the spiritual, the 

moral, social, philanthropic duties of their day. 

We do not need to regard the past as " dead " 
and banish all study of religious history. But we 
do need to recognize that our present methods do 
make the past actually lie dead; that rich past is 
living, mighty with the dynamic of spiritual ideals 
only as we take its tide of life and apply it to our 
days, only as those who look to that past turn also 
to their present and moved by the ideals, the hopes 
and visions that animated the great souls of old, en- 
deavor to bring the golden age and the new earth 
and heaven to our own day. 

We have done much already with the curriculum 
of the Sunday-school and with the educational plans 
of other branches in the church, but much more re- 
mains to be done ; the whole educational plan in the 
church must be co-ordinated to this vision, that it 
has to do with the development of lives, not minds, 
intellects, still less '' souls " as separate entities, not 
" little men," but lives as parts of a social whole to 



66 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

be brought into harmony one with another, into 
fulness of spiritual powers, into efficiency in service 
for their world. Therefore we shall train the youth 
as future workers in the kingdom. 

Thirdly. The Sunday-school will provide for 
men by suggesting work in which they can engage. 

In the very need for the training of the youth in 

religious ideals and service lies the opportunity for 

enlisting the services of many men 

A Man s Chance , , i. i tv /r 

who are not now at work. Men 
who shrink from teaching the Bible, feeling that it 
requires expert knowledge, may often be induced to 
talk with groups of boys about the activities in the 
church or for the community in which they are in- 
terested. If we teach the rebuilding of Jerusalem 
to the remnant that remain in the boys' class, why 
should we not ask the man who is most interested in 
the village or ward improvement association to come 
in for a few Sundays and talk with the boys about 
the renovation and beautifying of our own city ? Is 
Jerusalem more sacred than Chicago or New York 
or London? Or, again, ask this young man who 
seems to wait for something to do in the church — 
and who will not wait long — to find out the facts 
about the settlements in your city, and this other 
one the facts about the boys* clubs, this about the 
juvenile courts and the homes for delinquents or 
any other public agencies for betterment ; then ask 
each man to spend one or more Sundays with those 
boys — or girls — of fourteen to eighteen, talking 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 67 

about matters they have been studying. You will 
do the boys who are taught much good but you 
will have accomplished still more for the man who 
teaches. Nothing deepens our own knowledge, stirs 
our own interests, and binds us to further study and 
service like the honest attempt to tell something or, 
better, to teach something concerning any particular 
subject to others. 

It is difficult, indeed, to find a man who has 
not something worth telling boys. Commit the 
training of the boys to the men, and you have 
committed the men to the leadership of those boys 
for many years and you have too turned those 
men to a realization of the deficiencies in their own 
knowledge and service and awakened in them a de- 
sire for improvement that will often become a life- 
long passion. 

The work for boys offers an especially attract- 
ive field for men. The organization of boys' socie- 
ties and fraternities, such as the 
Knights of King Arthur for boys Worth-whae Wo,fc 
of early adolescence and the Brotherhood of David 
for younger boys, will furnish precisely the outlet 
for his powers and the training which a man needs. 

We have to remember that there is a much larger 
problem than that of providing suitable courses of 
study for adults. Men are not good listeners, prin- 
cipally because they are, after all, " only boys grown 
tall " — the restlessness persists in the man. In re- 
ligion, as in every other thing, he learns by doing. 



68 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

Opportunities for self-expression are needed by 
adult men as truly if not so uniformly as by chil- 
dren. The average man in a Sunday-school class 
has not been schooled to mental exercises unaccom- 
panied by physical action; he is not a trained stu- 
dent. He does the greater part of his thinking 
through his fingers. There is a chasm between his 
powers of mental application to abstractions and 
that of the men who, by many years of habits of 
study, have largely divested themselves of the need 
of expressional activities. The law of pedagogy, 
that there is no permanent impression without ex- 
pression, holds true of the men in the adult Bible 
class. Nothing is our real intellectual possession 
until it is expressed in life. No one can know 
square root without using its rules. Accompanying 
this simple principle is the other — that we arrive at 
the significance of any symbol through the experi- 
ence for which it stands. Just as the boy comes to 
know the meaning of the symbol 2+2=4 by actually 
putting two and two together, so does the man come 
to the significance of such symbols as creeds, social 
and ethical formulae of duties or ideals through the 
actual experience of which they are the crystallized 
expression. 

The need in the Sunday-school, as in any agency 
for formal instruction in religion, is to discover suit- 
able expressional activities, and to lead through 
their experience to the possession of truth and the 
acquisition of right habits and controls of conduct. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 69 

There is inviting opportunity for the services of 
men in the athletic work of the church. We have 
only recently come to realize that 
healthful recreation and true right- Church AtUetics 
eousness are not incompatible; that one might love 
clean sport and still be a saint ; that he may play ball 
and still go to prayer meeting. The Young Men's 
Christian Association had to teach us that lesson. 
The Sunday-school has been slow to learn it; but, 
within the past two or three years, an interest in 
athletics has been aroused so that to-day one looks 
regularly in the newspapers for the standings of the 
Sunday-school teams, listed under their different 
churches or their leagues, in baseball, bowling, or 
whatever the seasonable game may be. One city 
Sunday-school Association known to this writer em- 
ploys an athletic director. 

A physical director in one of the largest Christian 
Associations reports that the organization of athletic 
teams and the conduct of matches and tournaments 
is having a surprising effect on the young men in 
the Sunday-schools; it is arousing them to a new 
sense of the ethics of sport. Frequently the teams 
are made up of those men who do not have the 
advantage of the training of the Y. M. C. A. or of 
the college; they are composed of lads ignorant of 
the real rules of the game, those that lie back of the 
technicalities, those that make for honor and man- 
hood. The director mentioned lamented the diffi- 
culty of getting these youths to play up to high 



70 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

standards, but later reports indicate that the neces- 
sary salutary lessons are being learned. And the 
lessons learned here will not be forgotten else- 
where. You will hardly find the youth, square on 
the athletic field, crooked as a man in a business 
transaction. 

But athletic organizations and contests involve 
many serious problems for the Sunday-schools and 
the churches. While there is the risk that the ath- 
letic interests shall submerge all others in the school, 
that is really negligible beside the danger that the 
athletic events themselves shall become harmful, 
shall gravitate to lower standards, or shall become 
pedagogically powerful in the wrong direction. 
The playing field may be the place where lads 
fight their Waterloos, but it may also be the place 
where the pure are corrupted and the vicious be- 
come the virtual teachers of all. The pastor or the 
Sunday-school superintendent is usually insufficient 
for this occasion. Even though the parson who can 
play baseball, tennis, or football, who can row, 
shoot, and fish is becoming happily more common, 
the fact remains that his duties are too many and 
engrossing to permit of his spending any large 
share of his time on the playground. Few churches 
can aflford a physical director, though this is being 
provided especially for the boys in some of the 
larger churches, and indicates a happy move, re- 
storing to the churches the boys who were in danger 
of being weaned away, either by the streets or even 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 7I 

by the good work of the boys' department of the 
Y. M. C A. 

Here, then, is an opportunity for the man in the 
church. Men need to go on playing. There are al- 
ways good things ahead for the 
man who can actually keep in the °^^ ^ *^^^ 
game. And the boys need the men. They need the 
presence of these men, their fathers and neighbors, 
whom they know in everyday life and in the church 
services to tone up the running track and the base- 
ball diamond. The man who becomes coach to boys 
can get nearer to them every minute of the game 
and in the hours that surround it than an ordinary 
Sunday-school teacher can get to them once a 
month. 

Our boys need to have their play life guided, 
directed, developed. We are only just beginning to 
see the opportunity of the play spirit in the educa- 
tion of the child; the spirit, somewhat changed, is 
just as strong in the boy; there are signs on the 
golf links and the tennis courts that it may be just 
as strong in the man. Why should not the boys 
have their play in the name, in the spirit, and under 
the auspices of religion. Any strong, clean, boy- 
regarding man may become a life teacher to them 
on the athletic field. There is no finer opportunity 
than this. The men who like to play with the boys 
are the ones who can do it best. Great as the good 
to the boys will be, the good to the men will be no 
less. 



72 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

This suggests another field of opportunity for 
men, in the provision of athletic fields and apparatus 
for the boys of the churches. 

Why should not the city churches have their play- 
grounds and athletic fields? The rural church 
^, might also well have the latter. 

Church Athletic Why leave the lads to the effect of 
Field street training? A playground 

proves in our larger cities a profitable municipal 
investment. The cost for equipment and instructors 
is more than offset by the saving of wear and tear 
on police, on courts, and on neighboring property, 
not to mention the yet greater returns in the saving 
of these young people from the vicious training of 
the alley and other yet more harmful places of 
rendezvous as the Greek fruit stores and the barns 
and warehouses. Churches may join forces to main- 
tain playgrounds. The important thing is to see 
that they are properly conducted, and that respon- 
sible, efficient directors of play are in charge. 

Work of this kind not only trains the potential 
men who now are but boys, it furnishes splendid 
training for the men who become responsible for 
the playground and the field and who direct its 
work. Serving the youth they are led to discover 
themselves. 

These are only suggestive of the many forms of 
activity into which the church will lead men when- 
ever it seriously undertakes its task of the religious 
education of all the people. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE MAN 73 

The following are suggested as suitable ex- 
pressional activities for men in adult Bible classes: 

1. In the Sunday-school. By or- 

• j. . . Suggested Activities 

ganization, t. e., aiding in organi- ^ 

zing, conducting, caring for finances, supplies, etc. 

Training and instructing boys. Serving in offices of 

school. 

2. In the church. Train for intelligent service as 
officers. Teach special classes in training for duties. 
Seeking new service; care of church property, 
grounds, decorations, church advertising. Securing 
and maintaining church athletic field, playgrounds, 
library, etc. 

3. In the community life, (i) For individuals: 
Boys paroled to them on the " Big Brother " plan. 
Responsible for other man; assigned to them by 
class or cabinet. Visiting any sick or needy. Car- 
ing for families. (2) For institutions: Class vis- 
iting public institutions, city council, water works, 
library, etc. Class visiting semi-public institutions, 
settlements, hospitals, homes, etc. (3) By group 
activities: St. John's ambulance corps. Work 
through local improvement society. As political 
units, clubs. Groups for study of city or community 
life, making maps of wards and precincts, showing 
physical, social, religious conditions. Get facts. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 

A REMARKABLE change is now taking place in the 
Sunday-schools through the development of " Adult 
Bible Classes." Over thirty thousand men are en- 
rolled in these classes in Chicago, 111., alone. It is 
true that this includes men from twenty-one to 
twenty-five years of age; but a very large number 
are over twenty-five. 

Historical classes for adults have existed for 
many years in the Sunday-school, but such classes 
usually consisted of a handful of elderly ladies and 
gentlemen who had come to the point where life's 
principal interest consisted either in the prospect of 
eternal rest or in the acrid discussion of theological 
differences. Some ten or more years ago, however, 
a few men in different places began to gather 
young men into Bible classes. Such a class was 
the Hubbell Class in the First Baptist Church of 
Rochester, N. Y., having over one hundred members 
and an average attendance of one hundred. An- 
other large class for young men met in Immanuel 
Baptist Church in Chicago. In 1902 a few men 
became interested in an effort for the federation of 
adult Bible classes of this type. The teachers and 
74 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 75 

officers of a number of such classes, then newly 
organized in Chicago, were brought together. Early 
in 1903 the County Sunday-school Association in 
Chicago set up what was known as an adult depart- 
ment, being the associational organization of these 
classes. In May, 1903, a special train carried one 
hundred delegates from these adult classes to the 
State Sunday-school Convention, held at Taylor- 
ville. 111. As a result a committee was appointed by 
the convention to organize the work throughout the 
State of Illinois. In 1904 a special car carried the 
delegation of Chicago men who attended the State 
Sunday-school Convention, held at Mattoon, 111., 
and a distinctive badge, a red button, was first 
introduced in the State. In 1905 the International 
Sunday-school Convention, held at Toronto, adopted 
an Adult Bible Class Department. 

To what extent are these adult classes con- 
tributing to the religious training of men? Since 
they have grown up in the Sunday-school with its 
many traditions and its tendency to conservatism, 
these classes have been slow to organize themselves 
upon educational lines. Naturally they have, at 
first, in nearly every instance, been attempts to carry 
work suitable to children into classes for men. 
Gradually, however, there is a growing realization 
of the necessity of applying to these classes those 
fundamental pedagogical principles which we have 
already laid down. Inquiries are common for new 
courses of study and series of lessons suitable for 



76 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

men while the other leaders in this department of 
the Sunday-school are feeling their way out into 
what might be termed expressional activities. 

The present official view of the purpose of these 
classes is, perhaps, best seen in the suggested con- 
stitution sent out from the office of the International 
Sunday School Association and given herewith: 

SUGGESTED CONSTITUTION 

Article I. Name 

This class shall be called of the 

Sunday-school, of 



Article 1 1. Object 

The object of the class shall be Bible study, soul win- 
ning, Christian culture, mutual helpfulness, and the exten- 
sion of Christ's kingdom throughout the world. 

Article III. Membership 

Any man, woman — person sixteen years of age or over — 
may become a member by attending the class and sig- 
nifying a desire to join. 

Article IV. Officers 

The officers shall consist of a Teacher, President, Vice- 
president, Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall be elected 
annually by ballot, and shall hold office until the next 
annual meeting after their election, or until their suc- 
cessors are chosen. (Where the church provides for the 
election of the teacher the church authority should be 
recognized.) 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS ^^ 

Article V. Committees 

The following standing committees shall be appointed: 
Membership, Devotional, Social, and such others as the 
work of the class shall demand. The officers of the class 
and the chairmen of all standing committees shall com- 
pose an Executive Committee. 

Article VI. Meetings 

The class shall meet every Sunday for Bibly study at 
(hour) in connection with the Sunday-school. Business 

meetings shall be held at (hour) on the first 

day of each month and each quarter. Special meetings 
may be called at any time by the President, Teacher, or 
any five members of the class, by giving notice to the 
class the Sunday previous to the proposed meeting. One- 
fourth of the enrolled membership shall constitute a 
quorum for the transaction of business. 

Article VII. Duties of Officers and Committees 

Section i. The Teacher shall have charge of the lesson, 
and shall be ex-officio member of all committees. Officers 
and committees must consult with the teacher on all sub- 
jects pertaining to the class work, and all committee ap- 
pointments must have his approval. 

Sec. 2. The President shall preside on Sunday and at 
all meetings of the class, and shall be the general execu- 
tive officer. The President shall be chairman of the 
Executive Committee and ex-officio member of all com- 
mittees. 

Sec. 3. The Vice-president shall, in the absence of the 
President, perform the duties belonging to the President's 
office, and shall render such other assistance as may be 
required by the President. 

Sec. 4. The Secretary shall have charge of the records 



78 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

of the class> keep the minutes of all business meetings, 
and shall make all announcements. He shall make a 
record of the attendance of the members each Sunday, 
and report the same to the class and to the secretary of the 
Sunday-school as required. 

Sec. S. The Treasurer shall have charge of all the 
moneys, and shall pay them out as directed by the class, 
in harmony with the rules of the Sunday-school. He 
shall report to the class as often as required, and also to 
the treasurer of the school each Sunday. 

Sec. 6. The Executive Committee shall have general 
supervision of all the class work. It shall devise ways and 
means of advancing the interests of the class and of in- 
creasing its attendance. 

Sec. 7. The Membership Committee shall be responsi- 
ble for securing new members, looking up absentees, and 
the visitation of the sick. In the performance of its work, 
the members are responsible for devising methods and 
plans, and may call upon any member of the class for 
assistance. 

Sec. 8. The Devotional Committee shall be responsible 
for the spiritual welfare and work of the class. 

Sec. 9. The Social Committee is responsible for greeting, 
welcoming, and introducing new members and visitors. 
It shall also provide such socials and entertainments as 
the class may approve. 

Article VIII. Amendments 

This constitution may be amended at any regular busi- 
ness meeting of the class by a two-thirds vote of the 
members present. Any motion to amend must lie on the 
table at least one month before final action is taken. 

There are many forms of organization for these 
classes. Nearly all take some distinctive name, and 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 79 

many have elaborate buttons, banners, and other 
paraphernaHa. The mainspring, however, of every 
successful organization is some energetic person- 
ality with powers of leadership, while that which 
applies the power of the organization is some clearly 
conceived purpose for the class. 

Besides the form of organization suggested by the 
International Association, there are several others 
quite generally accepted. The Ba- 

1 ^ J J j_ J Other Forms 

raca classes, suggested and promoted 
by Mr. Marshall Hudson, of Syracuse, N. Y., and 
the Agoga classes, promoted by the Baptists, are 
examples. Both federate naturally with the Inter- 
national Association. 

The Agoga classes are Interesting because they 
stand for the significance of their title — ^the trained 
life. The full form of constitution may be obtained 
on application to the American Baptist Publication 
Society, Philadelphia. 

The Baraca classes stand for " Young men at 
work for young men." The organization has 
classes In nearly every city in the country. Full par- 
ticulars are obtainable at their headquarters at 
Syracuse, N. Y. 

Some especially good suggestions are made In the 
constitution of both these types of classes as to 
such special officers as reporters, visitors, *' en- 
tertainers " having charge of the recreations, and 
the " secret service " men enlisted to win personally 
other men to the Qiristian life. 



8o THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The value of this movement Hes, not in the start- 
ling increase in numbers, gratifying as the many 
thousands may be, but in the sound 

Essential Values . ^-r ^i j j ^ • 

scientific methods and correct prin- 
ciples which must direct these classes. 

There will be a tendency to grasp at the super- 
ficial and the statistical advantages of this de- 
velopment where a willingness to pay the price of 
deep and permanent success is lacking. Simply to 
open a room and advertise that here will meet a 
men's class, hoping that the popular trend will do 
the rest, is but to invite failure. These classes are 
not inexplicable. Reasons lie back of this remark- 
able development. Results will not be reached in- 
dependently of these reasons. The class will not 
succeed because such classes are popular; it will 
not succeed apart from those underlying causes 
which create success everywhere. It is therefore 
worth while to ask, What is the significance of this 
movement? and, What the causes of its success? 

The adult Bible class movement simply signifies 
that the Sunday-school is taking its place as an 
educational institution. It stands for the develop- 
ment of the school in two important directions: 
first, the school becoming an institution for the re- 
ligious education of men and women as well as chil- 
dren; and, secondly, that this religious education 
consists of something broader than that of instruc- 
tion in the interpretation of Scripture texts; it em- 
braces every religious interest and activity. 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 8l 

There is no good reason for denominating this 
a " movement," as though it were a crusade of some 
kind. It is a development, a natural growth. 
Adult Bible classes were not discovered by some 
wizard of ecclesiastical organization. They were 
born of two facts : Man needing God's truth ; God's 
truth found for man. They have grown as that 
truth has been more and more closely correlated to 
the nature and the needs of the man. The new thing 
about it all has been the point of view of the classes. 
This has been the now generally accepted historical 
conception of the Bible which makes it no longer a 
warehouse of texts for preachers and passages for 
teachers, but a living voice from the long ago with 
a message, eternally true, to the life of to-day. The 
teachers and leaders of these classes, who were 
gathering men in great numbers about the Bible, 
did not always know what they were doing; never- 
theless they were rescuing the Bible from burial in 
the tomb of tradition and professionalism and 
bringing it to its place in the pulsating tides of 
the street, the store, and the workshop. 

Wherever men thus found a living message, vital 
because seen as a part of the lives, experiences, and 
times of those who recorded it, they 
needed no further invitation to the Meeting a Life 

Need 

classroom. Any one who attended 
these adult Bible classes in the days when their fame 
was but just begun, and when they were binding 
large numbers together, would have been struck by 



S2 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

the fact that the word was taught in all in what is 
sometimes called the ''practical" manner; that is, 
not with searching for proof-texts or regarding it 
as an army of doctrinal weapons, but inductively, 
with the perspective of its significance to the lives 
of everyday people to-day gained from the stand- 
point of historical sympathy with the everyday 
people who contributed to its making. 

Wherever the Bible was so taught, mature lives 
were fed, stimulated, educated. Such classes grew 
because they lived. The new point of view, the bi- 
ological, it might be called, accounted for their be- 
ing. Nor was it long before such classes heard of 
one another and, like all living beings, began to get 
together ; hence the organized movement. 

Some are accounting for this development by 

telling us that the men have suddenly awakened to 

their need of the Bible. The truth 

^^ShTd^'^'^ is the church gradually awakened 
to the meaning of the Bible and, 
turning from medievalism to modern life, finds in it 
the message for yesterday, to-day, and forever. It 
was not a change in human nature that led to the 
classes ; it was a developing understanding and ap- 
preciation of the Bible and its place in life that led 
to the change.^ 

This is only another way of saying that the 
historical study of the Scriptures very naturally led 

* See " Development of Bible Study in Communities," by C. A. 
Brand, in " Aims of Religious Education,'' p. 202f. 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 83 

to a type of education in the Sunday-school which 
is vital rather than verbal, looking to living rather 
than to logical processes alone. Teachers of these 
classes had a new vision of the contents of the 
Book ; it gave them a living message from the lives 
of long ago to living men and women of now. And 
the many who care nothing for the subtleties of 
doctrine nor for the intricacies of deductive inter- 
pretations are still hungry for that which will be 
bread to their lives. Wherever there is success in 
the adult Bible class, that is success in any worthy 
sense, this will always be true: that the teaching 
of the Bible is based on the fundamental educational 
principle that instruction must be genetic, living, 
and related to the life processes of those who are 
learning. 

The second feature of the modern Bible class 
which lifts it to an educational factor is that it is 
more than a gathering or group listening to a lec- 
ture or learning a lesson, it is an organization 
tending to become an organism. It is an organi- 
zation that looks beyond text-books and lessons and 
touches the whole life of all its students. The Bible 
class relates itself not only to the head and to the 
heart of the members, it has a contribution to make 
to the whole life of each one. Commonly, though 
often unconsciously, these classes have been obedi- 
ent to the simple but highly important principle that 
you cannot educate a fraction of a man, a faculty 
or a phase of his being; there must be the reaching 



84 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

into and enlisting of every interest, activity, and 
possibility. Religious education will look on a man 
not only as a churchgoing being; it will have re- 
gard for him as a son, a father, a neighbor, a work- 
man, a sportsman, a creature of infinite variety. 

That the Sunday-school of to-day is coming 
into this viewpoint of its work and entering on 
its functions of applying the re- 
^ ^ ^ ligious motive or ideal to the whole 
life, at least so far as the adult department is con- 
cerned, is evident when one considers the activity 
of these men's classes. The club features, the base- 
ball, tennis, rowing, reading, debating, art, be- 
nevolent, and general educational activities, all 
centering about the Bible study, signify the co- 
operation of the school with the whole life, the de- 
velopment of a man's character by this complete en- 
listment of all the natural activities and capacities of 
his being. The sports, studies, and service of the 
class stand for education by doing. 

These two then are at least among the features 
revealing the significance and the elements secur- 
ing the success of adult Bible classes ; the historical 
study of the Scriptures as the record of eternal 
truth with their message to the life of our times 
and the religious education of the members of the 
classes by co-operation in their own activities. 
These two characteristics, adopted not because they 
will bring numerical success, but because they will 
accomplish the high educational purposes of the 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 85 

class, must be a part of the program of every wise 
teacher of men and women. But the teaching of the 
Bible in a new way for the sake of the novelty 
and the advertising or the engaging of men in 
sports and philanthropy in a mechanical manner, 
using these methods as baits instead of allowing 
them to grow out of the very energy of the class, 
will merit and secure only disappointment. 

It is a proper question, What contribution ought 
an adult Bible class to make to a man's life? No 
one can doubt that sufficient atten- 

^. , 1 . ^ ^1 -. Life Contribution 

tion has been given to the opposite 
form of interrogation, What contribution ought a 
man to make to his class ? But the continued exist- 
ence of the class depends very much more on what it 
gives to the man than on what the man gives to it. 
One does not have to be a prophet of woe to per- 
suade himself of the possibility of the present 
phenomenal development of the men's Bible classes 
coming to an end and witnessing a decline, perhaps 
more rapid than its rise, and certainly resulting in 
a condition far worse than that which went before. 
It is true that the men are to-day in the Sunday- 
school; they are there to an unprecedented de- 
gree, and the classes are still growing in size and 
increasing in their numbers. To many it seems as 
though we would never again have to ask the 
question. Why are not the men in the Sunday- 
school? Now, there is no reason why men should 
not depart from the school and the former things 



86 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

return unless there is in the school itself some new 
characteristic to compel their continuance. Despite 
the present enthusiasm, the old type of class will 
quickly meet its old failure with men. 
^ If the only reason that men are in the Bible 

classes is because these classes are being organized, 
federated, advertised, and explicated; if the only 
reason the men's corner is crowded is that its occu- 
pants are wearing buttons or discussing baseball, 
then the day is not far distant when worth-while 
men will weary of such superficialities. The en- 
thusiasm, parade, and circus atmosphere developed 
in the stage of organization will last about as long 
as the agitation of carbonated water. It is often 
due to like causes, and ends in similar flatness. The 
old type of class failed because it was not for men. 
It was designated either for monks or milliners. 
It made no contribution to a man's life. It dis- 
regarded absolutely the fundamental pedagogical 
principles of the adaptation, both of the method and 
material to the one who is to be taught. Only so 
long as the new type of class meets the needs of a 
man's life will men be found meeting with it. 

The first need of a man is an atmosphere. His 
soul lungs demand an air masculine, vital, laden 

with a sense of power. Soft, sister- 
^"os^lfer^" ly saintHness may give him wings, 

but he is not looking for wings 
just now; he wants work. A normal man likes to 
be with men. He is a clubable animal, naturally 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 8/ 

gregarious. Few things help him more than the 
sense of toning up which men feel when in a group. 
Sunday is for him the one day for storing the bat- 
teries of the heart and will in readiness for the 
week's work. He has a right to expect that the 
Sunday-school class will use this hour in enriching 
in him the treasures of true manhood by means of 
its atmosphere of virility. 

This contribution the school must make, through 
its classes, because it is an educational institution. 
Its business is not the performing 
of " devotions," but the develop- ^'^°^ 

ment of the life of its people. It must send them 
out richer in personality than at the time of entering. 
This enriching it will give by means of personality ; 
first of all by the living teacher, who will give more 
than ideas, who will make real and concrete to men 
the vision and the ideal. More than learning, men 
need a life to be set before them in potency and 
value. Here strength of life will discount scholar- 
ship. From the classroom a man must go out as 
one who has been in touch with things that nerve 
and brace him for the business and the bitterness 
of the toil for bread ; with that which through all of 
the rasping grind of the week will help to bring his 
soul into tune with the infinite. 

This will mean dignity, definiteness, and direc- 
tion in the whole arrangement of the school, both in 
preliminary and in class exercise. It will mean the 
separation of the men's class from the general ex- 



88 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ercise designed only for infants or adolescents. A 
man does not get much endowment for life's busi- 
ness from singing, '' We are little dewdrops," or 
even, " I want to be an angel." Melody is good in 
its place, but something more virile is needed to 
produce character. 

Another thing the school owes to the man is the 
adaptation of the content of its instruction. Its 
business is, so far as its peculiar 
ap a on limitations of time and force per- 
mit, the education of its people in the art of living, 
and particularly their living as children of God. 
To a man the art of living is a matter of relation- 
ships with his family, his neighbors, his city, his 
business, or his toil. He is not to be educated for 
a theologian or a preacher. It will matter little if 
he never knows the names of the daughters of Job, 
nor even those of the sons of Jacob, if only he may 
learn to bear the loss of all things with equanimity ; 
if only he will learn to wrestle with the infinite in 
order to be able to meet men. It matters much less 
than we often think whether a man acquires facility 
in locating the books of Ezekiel and Jonah in the 
Bible, but it matters much whether, in the quiet 
hour that belongs to life's essentials, he learns to 
live justly, act honorably, think nobly; whether he 
be trained In right moral judgment and good con- 
science. In setting truth and honor above all profit 
and honors. It will not harm him to know the 
former, but he must master the latter. 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 89 

Is it late in the day to be insisting that a man's 
class is not a woman's or child's class? Not if we 
may judge by the instruction often 
overheard. Don't complain of the ascumity 

irreHgion of men if the religion offered them is not 
enriching their real lives. Here, as everywhere, the 
learner must lead, the instruction follow ; the knowl- 
edge, habits, nature, and needs of a man must de- 
termine the material he shall receive. The essential 
thing is not the teacher's biblical equipment; this 
will be valueless unless it is related to the scholar's 
life by familiarity with the things of which the 
man is actually thinking and with which he is ac- 
tually struggling every day. Neither redactors nor 
glosses, nor even proof-texts lie within his vision. 
He is thinking of wages, work, taxes, votes, shoes 
and bread, home and kin. He has a right to look 
to the Sunday-school as a spiritual ally, that by 
equipment and adaptation will not fail him, to its in- 
struction as a definite asset in his business, in grap- 
pling with these things. As when on the farm you 
have a cool spring or a wide-spreading shade tree 
in the yard on which you count for rest and re- 
freshing, so does a man like to feel that somewhere 
in life there is a well whose waters spring refresh- 
ing and life-giving from the source of all being; 
somewhere there are far-spreading shadows where 
he may lie down to rest, and rise to gird himself 
anew with heart of increased vigor for the busi- 
ness and the battle of living. 



90 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The other day a well-known Sunday-school offi- 
cial was asked whether, in the many years during 
which he sat in a class, he acquired 
Equipment and ^^^ definite direction fitting him to 

rieparabon ^ 

meet the peculiar temptations com- 
ing to a young man in the city. His negative reply 
leads to the conclusion that men have come out of 
Sunday-school because they found so little in it. 
Men do not desire to be fitted with wings ; they do 
desire to know how to live aright. They count as 
the most valuable of all their assets that which 
teaches them the way of life. The main need is not 
so much detailed courses in ethics, not so much per- 
haps the curriculum that shows up well on paper, 
as the provision of teachers who are leaders — 
leaders because they live the man's Hfe, leaders be- 
cause they themselves are truly led in their daily 
living, their toiling, and their thinking, by the Man 
of Nazareth, because like him, they offer men only 
their best. 

All this does not mean that this class will hold 
men by mediocre talks on labor and capital. The 
value of the hour in the class will depend on the 
wise planning by officers, and wide preparation by 
teachers, which has gone before. That only will be 
worth much which costs much. 

Just as conditions create new organizations to 
meet new needs, it may be that the modern adult 
class in the Sunday-school exists, not simply to find 
a place for men and women in the school, but tO 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 9 1 

meet a definite and critical need of the church and 
of society. In fact, unless this organization has 
come into being of necessity in response to real 
need, if it is only a factitious creation, designed to 
corral and brand the otherwise free and undesig- 
nated adults, it will be but short-lived and without 
permanent value to religion. This is one of the 
fundamental tests of the religious education value 
of the adult Bible class in the Sunday-school: does 
it meet the actual needs of men in their relations to 
the church and religion; and particularly does it at 
all, as an organization of our times, meet the most 
serious need of our times for men as groups — that 
of leading them into their social consciousness as 
religious beings and guiding them to social effi- 
ciency ? 

The occasion for gathering these groups of men 
and women in study, and the opportunity for their 
largest value lies in the fact that 
the church to-day comes to the ASoci^ 

1- • r I i 1 1 1 Opportunity 

realization of an old duty, the sal- 
vation of society.^ She has talked for a long time 
about the salvation of the world; but she has been 
slow to recognize the full significance of the phrase. 
For long " meant the seclusion of a little group 
from the great world; then it came to signify the 
persuasion of the rest of the world to the acceptance 
of our personal views of religion and destiny; now 

3 See " The Sunday School a Social Force," by Geo. W. Mead, in 
" Education and National Character," p. 287f, 



92 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

it means the bringing of every man into the liberty 
and likeness of Jesus and the bringing of this whole 
earth to the ideal of the kingdom of heaven. It is 
not difficult to trace, step by step, the development 
of this modern idea of the moral, ethical, and social 
obligation of the church; it appears first in the 
form of devotion to individual character, then for a 
brief while in an enthusiasm for education, later it 
widens out into missionary enthusiasm, into con- 
sciousness of the solidarity of the race and the 
essential unity of the kingdom. But it is enough 
now to indicate how this new and higher duty calls 
for the study of the problems it involves, and for 
the careful training of the workers of the church 
in the larger fields that it opens out. 

The present-day ethical emphasis is social, rather 

than individual. The mind of the modern man 

feels this. If men have ceased to 

An Ethical hdive a part in the life of the church, 

hmphasis , .. , . , , , , 

and if the church has seemea to lose 
some of its power to direct the currents of life it is, 
at least in part, because she has too long continued 
both individualistic and other-worldly in practice 
and in preaching, holding religion without relation 
to present life and duty, and as the concern of the 
isolated man, rather than of the social mass. 

But while the church of the past was dreaming 
of heaven, earnest men were endeavoring to re- 
deem this earth. They were thinking through the 
problems of relations between man and man ; when, 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 93 

at last, the church began to think about these things, 
she found herself a bungler where her own men 
were experts ; her leaders, accustomed to the use of 
the voice of authority, stood and solemnly pro- 
claimed as eternal verities fallacies long before ex- 
posed by some of those who listened from the pews. 
Naturally such men at first felt keenly the failure 
of the church to keep pace with them in their living ; 
unfortunately they quickly learned to acquire pity 
and disdain for her opinion and authority as she 
continued to play with her duty. In time they 
ceased to look to the church for help or even 
sympathy. The mass of men who, though they may 
feel things but blindly, nevertheless feel truly, con- 
cluded that the average church and its agencies 
cared little for and had little to contribute directly 
to the things in which they were primarily inter- 
ested. 

To-day we see a church awakening to conscious- 
ness of social duty. The seminary begins to train 
the minister as a social leader, at 

i , , 1 . . I Social Conscience 

least as somethmg more than 
an expert exegete. The conscience of the church 
being aroused, she will not long content herself 
with dreams of angels while reeking tenements 
are across the alley from her walls. At the same 
time, men are coming to realize the peculiar con- 
tribution which the church can make, the aid she 
can give in the social problem, recognizing that 
newspapers, societies, and clubs have failed to re- 



94 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

deem society; they have usually lacked the great 
spiritual dynamic of religion. Society has a spir- 
itual hunger, and the spiritual organization has a 
social message ; the question is, Will the men of our 
day correlate the power of the church to the prob- 
lem of society? 

There is good ground for an optimistic answer to 
this question in the changing emphasis in religion. 
By turns in the past the emphasis has been institu- 
tional and philosophical, at one time ecclesiastical, 
and in more recent times, doctrinal. To-day it is 
ethical. As religion was once expressed in institu- 
tions, and later in creeds, so to-day it is being ex- 
pressed in character and life. In the days when the 
institutional emphasis was in its fresh vigor and 
purity it attracted the strongest minds in the whole 
field of the church's operations. Strong, noble- 
hearted, clear-visioned men, the best of their day, 
gave themselves without reserve to the defense of 
the church, to the strengthening and enriching of 
her institutions. The same held true of the great 
days when men fought for doctrines, when they 
cheerfully laid down their lives for the defense of 
certain theories ; the flower of all the earth bloomed 
in the church and often adorned her sacrifices. 
There could be but little problem in the religious 
education of men when religion won their highest 
enthusiasm. Only in the days when each emphasis 
lost its freshness and power, its significance, per- 
haps, when it had discharged its peculiar service, 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 95 

did the church cease to attract and hold and use 
men. To-day, when with the tide of a new Hfe the 
church is turning as never before to social service 
and calling for the expression of faith in character, 
men hear that call and something within answers to 
it. We shall, if the church is true to herself and to 
the inspiration coming to her in this century, again 
see the best manhood flocking to her and again see 
an age of religious heroism. It is the forefeeling 
of that, the cool breath before the dawn wind, that 
is already winning men to the church and grouping 
them in the classes. 

But it is to be noted that the ethical emphasis has 
a changed significance from that it once held; it is 
more than a question of personal 
character; it is one of social right- ^ ^^ ^™ 
ness. The virtues of the ideal man of to-day are 
quite different from those of the perfect character 
of the past: the man whose righteousness was a 
matter between his soul and God alone, whose ex- 
cellencies might be all unrelated. Psychology 
knows no individual; religion knows no individual, 
for none of us liveth to himself. The standard has 
become social; by what we are to others and by 
what our lives are worth to all are we judged. The 
ideal of the pure man, the wholly clean man who 
walked in the whiteness of his own soul, is a thrill- 
ing one. But this beauteous vision has no power 
to awaken heroism. It makes its appeal only to the 
individual. It calls for no team work. But the 



96 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

larger spiritual ideal of the man in the midst of 
men, the one who comes into the world and gives 
himself for the world, the new realization of the 
whole social, human significance of the life of 
Jesus, draws men together intensely, thrills them as 
groups and bands of beings, and arouses and main- 
tains a new passion for humanity and for social 
righteousness. Men come to social realization of 
themselves; instead of being self-conscious, they 
become socially conscious. The study solitude 
gives place to the class fellowship, the brooding over 
personal faults and the lonely struggle for indi- 
vidual perfections passes and its high passion is 
satisfied in banding ourselves with our fellows for 
the salvation of the world. 

One practical result of this new point of view, 
this changed emphasis, is that men think and talk 

as never before on the problems of 
M'^d^?^' claily living, on social relationships, 

on industrial, commercial, civic, and 
national affairs. Perhaps this has come about in 
part also through the closer knitting of men to- 
gether through travel and intercourse, through the 
general diffusion of knowledge and the bringing 
of men more to a common level of intelligence. At 
any rate, whenever men meet at table, in office, or 
on the train, they do not talk as once they did on 
the philosophical problems of religion; they no 
longer debate theology; they do not even discuss 
church intelligence, but they talk of wages, rents, 



THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS 97 

death-rates, municipal health, transportation, of 
social problems and human righteousness. 

The duty and opportunity of the church must al- 
ready be evident; here are the men in the adult 
classes, and here are their deep interests, their great 
needs, and their earnest desires and aspirations ; shall 
we ask them to suppress these interests and passions, 
glorious and divine as they are, while we rehearse 
with them dried-up genealogical tables, or trail 
them through archeological dust while their hearts 
are aching to find the way to help some living needy 
ones ? How long will red-blooded men, feeling the 
breath of our times, touched with the feeling of Him 
who went about doing good, be content to sit in a 
class and split theological hairs or wage philological 
battles ? 

The adult Bible class will render its highest serv- 
ice as it calls men back into the church by the im- 
perative of the opportunity for he- 
roic religious service, the service of cK °K 
society. The school will hold and 
help these men only as it leads them to this service, 
as it catches the new emphasis in religion and be- 
comes really the teacher of these men in the duties 
they are beginning to take up. The evident mission 
of the school with the adult is to train him to 
intelligent efficiency in religious service. The fact 
that this service will no longer be mere office-holding 
in the church, but will be the ministry of humanity, 
will involve the school's forever forsaking the con- 

G 



98 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ception of its work as that of a miniature theological 
seminary. Even the seminary is already forsaking 
its monastic, academic, other-worldly curriculum. 
The school must teach with the manner, message, 
and method of the great Master Teacher. He con- 
cerned himself little with questions of ancient lore, 
and with these at all only so far as they contributed 
to present-day problems; he touched the throbbing 
needs of men; he talked of servants, contracts, 
wages, homes, work, honor, equity, the problems of 
his day, and of the men who looked into his eyes. 

The teacher of such a class must be a man who 
understands the questions that are stirring men 
to-day. In his mind religion must 
have found full co-ordination with 
sociology. If he is dilettante, a mere dabbler, a flu- 
ent, shallow talker, he will soon find himself in 
waters beyond his wading. Many a pastor will take 
a humiliating splurge right here. One of the sad- 
dest and yet most amusing things is to hear the 
average preacher solve all the problems of society in 
a single sermon or in a short, duly advertised series 
of popular addresses. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BROTHERHOODS — THEIR ORGANIZATION 

In all the larger denominations there are now or- 
ganizations known as the brotherhoods, as for in- 
stance, " The Baptist Brotherhood " and " The Pres- 
byterian Brotherhood of America." These denomi- 
national brotherhoods are more or less informal 
federations of men's organizations affiliated each 
with a local church. There have been two stages in 
the development of these organizations. 

The older brotherhoods, as, for example, those 
known as the " Brotherhood of Andrew and Phil- 
ip " and the " Brotherhood of Saint 
Andrew " were organized in the p. Jk^ .^ 
eighties, about the height of the 
enthusiasm of the young people's society movement. 
The Brotherhood of Saint Andrew was originally 
a federation of the young men in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, for the two simple purposes of 
daily united prayer and individual Christian service 
for the church. Later, there were added junior 
chapters for boys, and the organization spread 
through Canada, England, and the British Colonies. 

The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip was or- 
ganized in 1888 to include men in all denominations, 

99 



100 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

giving each denomination its own council and of- 
ficers, and calling for practically the same activities 
and interests as in the first brotherhood. 

The earliest denominational organization of the 
brotherhood type seems to have been that of " Saint 
Paul," organized in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in 1896. This earlier type of men's or- 
ganizations has appealed, however, principally to 
the kind of men who were already in the churches, 
and who were of the sentimental temperament. 
It expressed itself almost exclusively in chapter 
gatherings for prayer and spiritual exercises, and 
in annual conventions at which at least one of the 
great attractions would be periods of quiet and 
protracted devotion. 

Quite another note is struck in the second period 
of development of men's organizations. The de- 
nominational brotherhoods of the 

c J D • J first decade of the twentieth century 

becond reriod / 

have been organized by strategic 
leaders in the great churches to conserve and de- 
velop the masculine forces in their membership and 
congregations. They are really the result of a 
movement which sprung up in the Sunday-school at 
the very beginning of this century. It took its rise 
in Chicago when several of the large Bible classes 
for men came to group consciousness, organized 
themselves under the county Sunday-school Asso- 
ciation, demanded recognition of that organization 
in a separate department of its activities, and for- 



THEIR ORGANIZATION lOI 

mulated the propaganda of a Bible class for men 
in every Sunday-school in the country. The adult 
Bible class movement, as it was called, spread like 
wildfire through the land. 

At this time (1910) it is estimated that there are 
over twelve thousand men in organized Bible classes 
in the Sunday-schools of Chicago alone. These 
Bible classes for men found it impossible to confine 
their vitality to Sunday. They began to meet as 
social organizations, as study clubs, and under vari- 
ous guises during the week. One of the most in- 
teresting developments has been the organization of 
various athletic leagues among these classes, a de- 
gree of interest and efficiency having been attained 
that gives to these Bible-class leagues a permanent 
place in the sporting columns of the daily papers. 

Later, leaders in the denominations began to see 
the wisdom of bringing together the existing groups 
of men in the different churches into broad national 
organizations. The Presbyterian Brotherhood was 
organized first, and soon afterward the Baptist 
Brotherhood, and then the Congregational. 

The National Constitution of the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood sets forth its organization and purpose 
as follows : 

The name of this organization shall be '^Bro^herhood^'' 
The Presbyterian Brotherhood of Amer- 
ica. It shall be under the control of the General Assem- 
bly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of 
America, as provided for in the form of government of 
said church. 



I02 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The object of the organization shall be to promote, 
assist, and federate all forms of organized Christian ac- 
tivity of men in the churches, which have for their purpose 
the winning of men to Christ and the church, the promo- 
tion of spiritual development and the training in useful- 
ness of men connected with the congregation through 
prayer, Bible study, and Christian service, the strengthen- 
ing of fellowship, and the extension of Christ's kingdom 
at home and abroad. 

1. Financial help, subscriptions to the magazine, spiritual 
sociability, elder-brother work, prayer, and more earnest 
personal evangelism. 

2. Personal effort to increase church attendance. 

3. Junior work; not only by older men for boys, but the 
organization of the boys themselves for service in the 
name of Christ. 

4. The development of masculine Christianity in the home. 

5. The training of Bible-class leaders in the preparation 
of men for intelligent service in the offices of the church; 
in the diffusion of knowledge as to the history and mean- 
ing of our own church polity and government and the points 
of essential unity with other branches of the church of Christ. 

6. Education on the questions of social duty. 

7. The completion of the system of synodical and pres- 
byterial organization. 

8. The interchange of fellowship and experience. 

9. The extension of His kingdom at home and abroad. 

The circular of the Chicago Baptist Brotherhood 
states that 

. The object of the Brotherhood shall be to 

Brotherhood secure the federation of men's organi- 
zations affiliated with Baptist churches, 
with a view to spiritual development, denominational 
fealty, social fellowship, good citizenship, and co-operative 
sympathy with Christian progress. 



THEIR ORGANIZATION IO3 

This is what might be called " a local " of the 
wider general denominational brotherhood, and the 
national organization states its purpose and its 
method to be: 

The purpose of the Brotherhood shall be to promote the 
organization of men in our churches and congregations 
with reference to spiritual development, social betterment, 
civic and commercial righteousness, the reenforcement 
of the church, the evangelization of the world, and the 
brotherhood of man in Christ. 

The method of the Brotherhood shall be simply to bring 
all men's organizations in Baptist churches into effective 
co-operation without in any way imposing upon them a 
definite form of local organization or method of work. 
The adoption of the foregoing declaration of purpose shall 
not interfere with the purpose or method of work of 
any local organization. 

The brotherhoods in the local churches usually 
have similar statements declaring their purposes and 
methods. 

The " Harper Chapter " of the Baptist Brother- 
hood thus sets forth its aims : 

The Purpose 
The object of this organization is to advance every good 
work in this neighborhood and to strengthen the efficiency 
of the church. It does not intend to duplicate existing 
organizations or activities, but to induce its members to 
support and earnestly participate in all organizations and 
movements in this community having for their purpose 
the advancement of the Christian religion and the better- 
ment of human society. 



I04 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The Pledge 
I pledge myself to aid in the advancement of the prin- 
ciples of Christianity; to assist in the furtherance of the 
undertakings of the Baptist denomination; to aid and 
encourage this church in its various activities; to take 
and perform the duties of some official position (approved 
by this chapter) in connection with this church or Sunday- 
school; or, otherwise, to identify myself immediately with, 
and take an active part in, at least one non-remunerative 
organization or movement (approved by this chapter) not 
connected with this church, but looking to religious, chari- 
table, social, or political betterment; to report on my serv- 
ice in any such capacity as and when this chapter may 
direct; and to ask and receive the suggestions or criticisms 
of the chapter and its members touching such activity. 

The purpose of the Congregational Brotherhood 
is stated as follows in the constitution adopted at 
»,, ^ . , the first convention: 

1 he (congregational 

The object of this Brotherhood shall be 
to encourage the organization of men in the Congrega- 
tional churches, and unite all such organizations in one 
national body, so that we may labor together for the enlist- 
ment of men in the service of Christ, for increased effi- 
ciency in the local church, for the furtherance of social 
righteousness, and in fellowship with all other Christian 
bodies for the promotion of the kingdom of God to the 
ends of the earth. 

The secretary of the Congregational Brotherhood 
sent out the following letter in 1909. It indicates 
the method of federating the serious men's organi- 
zations in a denomination where there is no form 
of general control over the churches: 



THEIR ORGANIZATION I05 

To the Officers of Men's Societies in Congregational 
Churches: 

Dear Brothers: I am writing you because of your 
interest in men's work. You, no doubt, know that our 
National Brotherhood was authorized by our National 
Council, and was organized April 30, 1908. Since then 
men's societies in our churches all over the country have 
been enrolling in The National Brotherhood. We would 
like very much to enroll your organization. The advan- 
tages are many. It will make your men members of The 
Congregational Brotherhood of America, and entitle them 
to all its privileges. It will put your organization on our 
list to receive all the help that the Brotherhood head- 
quarters is able to give you. You will be entitled to two 
voting delegates in the National Convention at Minneapolis, 
October 14-17, 1909. This will give you an influential part 
in shaping the brotherhood movement. 

Any organization of men in connection with a Congre- 
gational church, whatever its name or form of work 
may be, is eligible for enrolment. We do not dictate to 
the local groups concerning their work in any way. Each 
society is left absolutely free to conduct its own work 
in the way that it chooses. The simple requirement for 
enrolment is an application for enrolment with a copy of 
your constitution and the fee of one dollar. 

We want to enroll you before the first anniversary of 
The National Brotherhood. 

In general the brotherhoods are simply the or- 
ganizations of men in the denominations into fra- 
ternities bound by somewhat indejfi- 
nite ties, but united in common A Platform for 

brotherhoods 

purposes. 

The following has been suggested as a statement 
of the purposes and plans of a brotherhood : 



I06 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

I. Purpose 

Associated manhood seeking the full and efficient Chris- 
tian life for each man for the sake of the full and efficient 
Christian life for all men. 

II. Platform 

We seek to bring together the men of all our churches 
that they may come to consciousness of their united pos- 
sibilities for the kingdom, and may be trained to fulness 
of consecrated service. 

We seek to bind together the men of each church for 
Christian fellowship, that they may thus learn the fine 
art of social living as spiritual beings. 

We seek to hold the men of the church together for 
study of the ways and will of God, as seen in his word, 
his works, and in the ways of men. 

We seek to guide the men of the church together in 
preparation for brotherly work in the kingdom; we seek 
to lead them into this work both in their churches and 
in their communities. 

III. Plans of Work 

1. A policy of association. To help men to come to 
group consciousness, to know how many there are, and 
how strong these many are for the work of the kingdom. 
To cultivate this sense of strength, unity, and spiritual so- 
cial solidarity. The brotherhood obeys the "get-together" 
instinct in men, and steadily endeavors to discover methods 
and opportunities for associating men in groups, as in 
classes, clubs, and societies, and especially in one broad 
fellowship in the church. 

2. A policy of preparation. The kingdom needs trained 
workers. If the church would have men efficient it must 
care for their education and their apprenticeship in the 
work of the church. The brotherhood will teach men the 



THEIR ORGANIZATION IO7 

history, purposes, and place in modern life of their church; 
it will train them for the work of the church by instruc- 
tion, by direction, and by finding opportunity for service. 
It will inspire, instruct, and direct men in Christian serv- 
ice in their communities in the name of the church and the 
kingdom. This will be accomplished by courses of study 
and organizations for work in the church, missions, social 
improvement, etc. 

3. A policy of activity. Stimulating the men of the 
church for the work of the kingdom, world-wide; co- 
ordinating and directing the tremendous powers of Chris- 
tian manhood to the evangelization of the world through 
the preaching of the gospel, the relief of distress, the in- 
stitution of personal and social justice, and the organ- 
ization of society for the reahzation of the kingdom of 
heaven. 

It will be evident that here is a purpose quite dil- 
ferent from that of the Sunday-school, and much 
wider than that of the earlier type 
of brotherhood. The idea is out- ^ urpose 

lined in the statement of the Presbyterian Brother- 
hood with its use of the words " activity," " use- 
fulness," " service," " fellowship." As a simple 
matter of fact, the brotherhood is only one of the 
expressions of the coming of the man with his 
modern idea of religion, with his spiritual ideals, 
and his practical-mindedness into the church. Since 
the type of religion that belongs to the men of 
our day could not find expression through exist- 
ing activities and opportunities in the church, it has 
been compelled to set up for itself a new type of 
organization. It is a happy augury that this or- 



I08 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ganization takes to itself so significant and pro- 
phetic a name as that of a brotherhood. 

It means more than a fraternity would mean, for 
it holds clearly the ideals of that kingdom in which 

all men shall be brothers and so 
Greater than^ come to the knowledge of the one 

Father of us all. Yet this move- 
ment conserves all the real advantages of a fra- 
ternity, it binds men together in an organization 
peculiarly their own, for men only, in which the 
masculine type will be developed and in which there 
will be the fullest opportunity for the expression of 
one's spiritual ideals in consonance with the prac- 
tical needs of a man's life. It is not unlikely that 
some of the very best ideals of the Greek letter 
fraternities will be carried over into this brother- 
hood ; for instance, the first local group in the Bap- 
tist brotherhood to come to full organization is that 
which is connected with the Hyde Park Baptist 
Church of Chicago. This group calls itself " The 
Harper Chapter of the Baptist Brotherhood," and 
proposes to bind its members by definite pledges to 
what under other conditions would have been known 
as knightly ideals and service, but which here are 
made to apply to social and moral conditions of our 
day, and find their expression through improvement 
associations, voters' leagues, and reform and edu- 
cational agencies. It is planning a period of no- 
vitiate for boys, a sort of " Esquires' discipline." ^ 

1 The ceremonies of initiation are described in Chapter IX. 



THEIR ORGANIZATION ICQ 

The brotherhood is also distinctly a layman's 
organization. Wherever one attends its gatherings, 
the large proportion of intelHgent, 
influential laymen must appear to A Laymans 
him remarkable. Some of the gov- 
erning bodies in these organizations have gone so 
far as to rule that only laymen can hold executive 
offices on the committees. 

At the convention at which the Congregational 
Brotherhood was organized, held in Detroit, Mich., 
April, 1908, of a total registration of three hundred 
and forty delegates, two hundred and six were lay- 
men and one hundred and thirty-four were min- 
isters; that is, sixty per cent, were laymen. Ob- 
servers reported that these laymen were nearly all 
young men or men under the prime of life. This 
proportion of laymen who were not yet to be num- 
bered among the " fathers " has been noticeable at 
the conventions of the other brotherhoods. 

At a gathering of the Baptist Brotherhood of 
Chicago, at which about four hundred men were 
present, there were not over ten men who had passed 
the prime of life; and by far the greater number 
were men under thirty years of age. 

These men come to such gatherings eager to 
learn what is being done in other organizations, and 
how they may engage in definite practical service in 
religion. The criticism made by one who reported 
the Congregational Convention in Detroit in 1908, 
precisely expresses what these young men are fre- 



no THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

quently heard to say in regard to such gatherings, 
as it also indicates the manner in which the brother- 
hoods must save themselves by meeting the real 
needs of these men and leading them into the serv- 
ice they are anxious to render. The reporter wrote : 

There was far too little information touching what 
men's clubs are actually doing, how they m.aintain Bible 
classes, help Sunday evening service, foster the social life 
of the church, bring in outsiders, finance themselves, con- 
tribute to the ongoing of the church machinery, and so on. 
A good many young fellows were just yearning to hear 
such matters discussed from the point of view of men 
who are actually doing them, so they could go home 
better qualified to do work for and with men in their 
own fields.^ 

The following is a list of the brotherhoods already 
organized in 1909, with their principal officers: 

Brotherhood of Saint Andrew. Official organ, 
" Saint Andrew's Cross." Robert H. Gardiner, 
president; Hubert Carleton, general secretary; 
George H. Randall, associate secretary. Head- 
quarters, Broad Exchange Building, Boston, Mass. 

Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip. Official 
organ, " The Brotherhood Star." Rev. Rufus W. 
Miller, president; Rev. W. H. Pheley, general sec- 
retary. Headquarters, Fifteenth and Race Streets, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

United Presbyterian Men's Movement. Official 

2 " Congregationalist," May 9, 1908. 



THEIR ORGANIZATION III 

organ, "The Men's Record." A. P. Burchfield, 
president; John A. Crawford, general secretary. 
Headquarters, 6x6 West North Avenue, Allegheny, 
Pa. 

The Methodist Brotherhood. Official organ, 
" Methodist Men." Harvey E. Dingley, president ; 
William B. Patterson, general secretary. Head- 
quarters, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

The Presbyterian Brotherhood of America. Of- 
ficial organ, " The Presbyterian Brotherhood." 
Charles S. Holt, president; Rev. Ira Landrith, 
D. D., general secretary. Headquarters, 328 Wa- 
bash Avenue, Chicago, 111. 

Men's Movement of the United Brethren Church. 
Rev. J. G. Huber, chairman; O. P. Beckley, secre- 
tary. Headquarters, 510 South Thirteenth Street, 
Harrisburg, Pa. 

National League of Universalist Laymen. Ed- 
mund Miller, president ; Frank J. Tanner, secretary. 
Headquarters, 434 Prudential Building, Buffalo, 
N. Y. 

The Brotherhood in the Southern Presbyterian 
Church. Robert W. Davis, general superintendent. 
Headquarters, 212-214 North Sixth Street, Rich- 
mond, Va. 

Men's Movement, Disciples of Christ. Official or- 
gan, " Christian Men." R. A. Long, president ; 
Rev. P. C. Macfarlane, general secretary. Head- 
quarters, Long Building, Kansas City, Mo. 

The Baptist Brotherhood. Francis W. Parker, 



112 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

president; Rev. F. E. Marble, general secretary. 
Headquarters, 2 Arlington Street, Cambridge, 
Mass. 

The Congregational Brotherhood. J. H. T. Main, 
president; Rev. Frank Dyer, general secretary. 
Headquarters, 2449 North Paulina Street, Chicago, 
111. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE BROTHERHOODS — THEIR PLANS OF WORK 

The future of the brotherhood movement is im- 
possible to forecast. Yet it is to be determined 
upon one very simple principle, namely, that its per- 
manence depends entirely on the efficiency and 
thoroughness with which it meets the real needs of 
men in the religious world to-day. There is great 
danger that it will evaporate in emotionalism ; that it 
will expend its energies in colossal conventions, ex- 
press its ideals in resolutions and die with its vision 
only dawning, and its real work not yet begun. 

The conditions of the successful service of the 
brotherhoods are, first, that it must meet the real 
needs of man. In so far as it is Conditions of 
used as a trick or bait to catch men Success 

for the sake of the church, it will fail; in so far as 
it is used exclusively for the development of a sect, 
for the propaganda of a denomination, and becomes 
only a new device to enlist men in an old cause, the 
interest of which has long since been outgrown, it 
will fail ; in so far as men seek to set about it bounds 
and landmarks of formal statements in religious 
philosophy, confining the freedom of expression 
among men, it will fail. It must lift before men 

H 113 



114 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ideals as high as their own best visions ; it must bind 
men together in the spirit of the old Crusades, com- 
pelling even the dullest to dream and stirring even 
the sluggish to realize their own visions; it must 
make great demands on men, the demands that the 
young men are eager to hear. If there is one thing 
above any other that the young man is hungry for, 
it is a chance to do heroic service. We must cease 
to seek for easy things for men to do; we must 
hold before them the hard things. We are more 
likely to get a man to start on some forlorn hope 
than to persuade him to go to church picnics. The 
men go where privation calls them, and where 
duties are hardest. Conventions with banners and 
bands, choruses and Chautauqua salutes, rhetorical 
circuses and surfeits, savor too much of the old- 
time enervating pious picnics. Wherever the 
brotherhoods will call men from such debilitating 
exercises and set their eyes upon the alleys that need 
cleaning, the poor who wait for friends, the ignorant 
who wait for light, the thousand and one opportu- 
nities for a man to do a man's work, there will be 
no question as to whether men will rally to them. 

A well-known man, one of the most prominent 
political factors in his own State, and thoroughly 

"A 1V4 • •• ^^^igi^^^s in his sympathies, said re- 
cently at a public gathering : " The 
reason that men are not in the churches is that at 
present there is nowhere a man's job for a man in 
the churches." 



THEIR PLANS OF WORK II5 

Here lies the splendid opportunity, and in the 
possible neglect of this opportunity, the real danger 
of the brotherhood movement. These organizations 
are to be found in thousands of churches, but in a 
great many instances it is to be feared that they 
have been created only because they are at present 
the vogue, or because pastors and others have hailed 
them as specious devices to win men to the church. 
There is a grave danger that, lacking wise direction, 
and having no special reasons for being, the brother- 
hoods will, in many instances, only record another 
failure on the part of the church to meet the needs 
of the lives of men. 

Meetings of men for mutual stimulus without 
some worthy aim, for even Bible study, will not 
justify themselves to-day unless they differ from the 
types of meetings of the past. The danger is great 
that the brotherhoods will only carry over the forms 
and customs of obsolete methods into this new or- 
ganization, and that the splendid powers of associ- 
ated manhood will wear themselves out in the 
fruitless promotion of meetings and meetings. 

The brotherhoods need a specific mission, a rea- 
son for being, and a work to do that would not be 
done without them. What better 
could they undertake than this : to °'* ^ 

find a " man's job for a man in the church " and to 
fit a man to do it? 

Such a purpose will, first of all, involve the or- 
ganization of brotherhoods as distinctly men's as- 



Il6 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

sociations, not as modified or magnified types of 
Sunday-schools, or young people's societies, or 
prayer meetings. It will be necessary to let the 
brotherhoods work out their own plans and destiny. 
They must be the free and spontaneous expressions 
of the lives and the life-interests of men. The first 
principle will be that, earlier stated, of the adapta- 
tion of the organization to the laws of the life of 
those for whom it is created. 

All that has been said regarding the foundations 
for success in the adult Bible classes appHes even 
Peculiar with greater force to the brother- 
Opportumties hood organizations, particularly be- 
cause the brotherhood has larger opportunities for 
service through all the week. In its " chapters," or 
other meetings, men will feel a greater freedom in 
discussing their own real life problems. As the 
leaders in these organizations are willing to deal 
practically and fully with the questions that perplex 
the minds of men, there will be on the part of the 
man a steady looking to the brotherhood for a dis- 
cussion of these questions which have been neglected 
by the church, and concerning which men have 
looked in vain to any religious source for an answer. 
In the free and even informal discussions which 
would take place among groups of men, organized 
as a fraternity of this character, there would be op- 
portunities, of a kind not found anywhere else, for 
squarely facing ethical problems and meeting in- 
telligent and moral needs. 



THEIR PLANS OF WORK II7 

In the organizations themselves, men will find 
also large means of development, through the en- 
listment of their services. Their interest in the work 
of the church, and the service of the kingdom will 
develop as it never could so long as they felt that 
they were merely playing a part, and that a part 
of child's play, in acting as ushers and similar 
officers in the church. 

Groups of men in a church or a community asso- 
ciated together for the purposes stated in the con- 
stitutions of the brotherhoods and 
generally held by the men's clubs, 
have in them high potentialities of educational use- 
fulness. The largest values will recur to the active 
members of these groups, on account of the simple 
comprehensive fact that in no way are men so like- 
ly to be helped as when they are seeking to help 
others; in no way are men more likely to be edu- 
cated than when they are seeking, in humility and 
sincerity, to educate others. Provided that these 
local organizations of men recognize clearly their 
distinctive purpose and avoid the dangers of simply 
duplicating the activities already under way in the 
church, or of seeking to be miniature masculine 
churches, provided they will take up those special 
practical activities for which they are fitted, there is 
no doubt that these institutions will mark a real 
epoch in the life of the church. Brotherhoods and 
men's clubs meet a real need in the churches; they 
are capable of solving one of the most serious prob- 



Il8 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

lems in religious and moral training, namely, that of 
discovering and using the normal expressional ac- 
tivities of a man's religious life. The engaging of 
groups of men in definitive work in the church is 
the recognition of the pedagogical principle that in 
order to become part of any life, all instruction, all 
educational endeavor must issue in some forms of 
self-activity. The church once demanded that all 
men should give evidence of a religious experience 
by patient listening to sermons and by freedom in 
vocal testimony as to past experiences. The religious 
life of an active man was likely to perish for lack 
of action. To-day the church is seeking to furnish 
opportunity for self-expression of faith in obedience 
to the educational law which insists that for every 
impression we seek to make we shall furnish a pos- 
sibility of expression; that when we indorse duties 
we shall provide for their appropriate deeds; that 
we shall seek constantly to secure reflex action on the 
part of all learners. Ultimately the application of 
this principle will mean bringing every activity of 
the church into the circle of educational intent. 

This, then, will be the fundamental principle in 
the organization of a man's club, or a brotherhood, 
that it may become through the association of men 
together the means of stimulating the religious life 
of men; through classes, a means of instructing 
them ; and through the activities of its members, the 
means of expressing or carrying out, in action and 
conduct, the normal religious life of a man. 



THEIR PLANS OF WORK II9 

The natural activities, the normal self-expression 
of a man's religion, come into clearer light when 
we observe the things that men are doing when left 
to themselves to express their religion in their own 
way, as in the brotherhoods. Any theoretical out- 
line of the normal expressional activities of a man's 
faith is likely to be neither accurate nor comprehen- 
sive. But if we examine the activities which have 
spontaneously arisen in such autonomous and prac- 
tical vehicles of expression as the brotherhoods, we 
will find much of value and suggestion. To indicate 
what is being done may be to suggest the most 
evident and immediate possibilities of these organi- 
zations as contributory to the development of the 
adult life and character. 

Remembering the practical-mindedness of modern 
man, the brotherhood will first of all seek to give 
him practical things to do; prob- Brotherhood 
ably this service will begin in the Training 
organization nearest at hand — ^that is, in the church 
itself. Brotherhoods will train laymen for efficient 
services in the church. All that has been said in the 
chapter on the Sunday-school as to training for 
church work, applies equally well here. Ministers 
are wont to dwell on the appalling ignorance of the 
laymen, but this ignorance is not due to the man in 
the pews, but to the failure of the church to train its 
own lay-workers. When it is said that the men are 
usually willing that the minister should carry all the 
burdens of the church, it may well be answered that 



I20 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

the ministry has never taught men how to carry 
these burdens. In most instances they would be 
wiUing to carry the burdens if they knew how. 
We have no right to urge duties upon men if 
we fail to instruct in them. It is not fair to de- 
nounce a man for failure as a pastry cook when 
you have given him no training in the culinary 
art. The brotherhoods ought to be, first of all, 
training schools for church service. The denomina- 
tions might well issue simple text-books on church 
duties and procedure, giving to men the information 
and guidance needed in these directions. 

It would mean a new era in the church if, in- 
stead of having only one person trained as an ex- 
pert for his special service, or a few trained experts, 
all those who are asked to have any part of its work 
were trained adequately at least to the measure of 
their responsibilities and duties. The existence of 
the adult department in the Sunday-school, the 
brotherhoods, and the men's groups, make possible 
this training and discipline of the men. But men 
are not likely to undertake training or to submit to 
the discipline for any object short of that which ap- 
peals to their highest ideals and awakens a deep 
desire for real service. The church must conceive 
a wider mission than that of perpetuating a local 
organization ; it must see the vision of that kingdom 
which is to come, and which it is to bring, before 
men will regard it as worth their while to learn how 
to do its business. 



THEIR PLANS OF WORK 121 

A Massachusetts pastor describes his brother- 
hood, and indicates its purposes thus : 

In my own church, while the Brother- Some 

hood is definitely related to the Con- Examples 

gregational Church, it is not called the 
Congregational Brotherhood. Its name is simply the 
Wareham Brotherhood, and its object is "to promote 
mental and spiritual development, good fellowship, social 
betterment, civic and commercial righteousness, the re- 
enforcement of the ethical work of all the churches in the 
community, and the universal brotherhood of man." It 
is related directly to the church in its Sunday meetings, 
which are held at the regular Sunday-school hour, and 
consist of a course of study on " Great Men Worth Know- 
ing." There are several definite duties urged upon each 
member, (i) To improve the general welfare of his 
brothers and fellows; (2) to visit those who are sick; 
(3) to take an active part in making some church a vital 
factor in the community; (4) to attend the regular and 
social meetings of the organization; (5) to take daily 
some steps to improve his own physical, mental, and 
spiritual nature. 

The Chicago Baptist Brotherhood issues a cir- 
cular concerning the work suitable for its local or- 
ganizations and members, mentioning the follow- 
ing suggested lines of work for men, personal 
hand-to-hand evangelistic work: 

For Local Church Organisations. Bible Classes (Sun- 
days). Social Evenings (room in church open evenings). 
Community Circles (visiting men in the community). 
Forward Mission-study Nights. Visiting Hospitals and 
the Sick. "Hand-shake" Committees (Sundays). Chris- 
tian Stewardship Committees. " Secret Service " Work 



122 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

(Prayer Circles). Personal Work Committees. "Open 
House" Nights. Science Programs. Musical Programs. 
Pure Food Discussions. Good Government Programs. 
Literary Programs. Debates. Temperance. Good Gov- 
ernment Committees. 

''Older Brother's'' Work. (Every Christian man being 
responsible for some younger man or boy in the Sunday- 
school or from the juvenile court.) Athletics (baseball, 
tennis, etc.) Reading Rooms. Glee Clubs or Choruses. 
Employment Committees. Denominational Fealty Depart- 
ments. 

For City Organisations. United Work, as above sug- 
gested. Interdenominational Work. Citizenship and Civic 
Reform Work. Educational Work. Laymen's Evangelistic 
Work. 

Some interesting possibilities in a brotherhood are 
suggested by the plans of work of St. Paul's Uni- 
versalist Church of Chicago. 
A Liberal Men s -p^e object of the club is to pro- 

Urganization •' ^ 

mote good fellovv^ship and the men- 
tal, moral, and social welfare of its members. 

Although affiliated with St. Paul's Universalist 
Church, membership in it, or other connection with 
it, is not obligatory as a condition of membership in 
the club. Men of no church affiliation whatever 
are eligible to membership. Indeed, it is one of 
the aims of the organization to make it a social 
club and educational center for all men who may 
wish to join. Any man may become a member when 
accepted by the membership committee, on the pay- 
ment of one dollar for six months' dues, and by 
sig-ning the application card. 



THEIR PLANS OF WORK I23 

The meetings are held in St. Paul's beautiful 
chapel the second Tuesday of each month, except 
July, August, and September. At each meeting a 
special program is arranged of an intellectual, so- 
cial, or entertaining character. Prominent men of 
affairs address these meetings. The club holds an 
annual banquet, at which well-known speakers ad- 
dress the members. 

The annual dues are two dollars, payable one dol- 
lar in advance on the first days of June and De- 
cember of each year. 

All members are privileged and urged to bring 
their men friends to any meeting. The meetings are 
of an informal character. At all meetings, except 
" Ladies' Night," smoking is allowed. After the 
addresses, general discussion is permitted, and ques- 
tions may be asked the speaker on the topic of his 
address. 

Some of the possibilities of a brotherhood in a 
rural church are suggested in a letter by the Rev. 
Frank Malvern, pastor of the , , _ ,_, 

17 5 TV T / Ti \ -n t- ^ • In the Rural Church 

raggs Manor (Pa.) Presbyterian 
Church. He says : '' This church is a large country 
church, near no village or town. The brotherhood 
was organized with these aims : to help keep the pas- 
tor informed as to the state of affairs in the congre- 
gation, which covers about a hundred square miles ; 
to give the men of the congregation work for the 
church ; to reach the men of the community, and to 
make the church more of a power for Christianity 



124 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

amongst the men and youth about us. Owing to 
the long distances members must drive, but one 
meeting each month is possible." 

The work in such a place would differ greatly 
from that in the city. But in the country, men, 
having fewer social opportunities, appreciate them 
the more. The brotherhood may well be a means of 
strengthening the attractions of rural life. Its mem- 
bers might, in the smaller villages, maintain li- 
braries, conduct athletics, sports, hold debates, care 
for the church grounds. Indeed, the brotherhood 
could well become in itself a village improvement as- 
sociation, as well as conducting much useful work 
in the church. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE BROTHERHOODS — THEIR EXTENSION WORK 

Besides the work which men will do for the 
church itself, readily and with benefit to themselves, 
there are many things which they will seek to do in 
the brotherhoods as expressive of their religious 
ideals. These will include such work as social and 
community betterment, a form of activity to be ulti- 
mately recognized as an essential part of the work 
of the church, ramifying all through the life of the 
community. State, and nation. 

The work of the brotherhoods will extend far 
beyond either the church or the immediate group 
of mgn. It will undertake all service that belongs 
to the kingdom, and it will undertake this service in 
the practical businesslike methods of the modern 
man. The walls of the classroom of the brother- 
hood may have upon them relief maps of Palestine 
and the Old Testament world, or they may not, 
but they certainly will have maps and charts of their 
own fields or cities. The brotherhood will become 
the church expressing itself through the community ; 
its men will know the facts of city life; the moral 
and sanitary conditions; the municipal ordinances 
and city laws, and all that relates to the regulation 

125 



126 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

of city life. If once the brotherhoods are given a 
free hand, and through them there takes place the 
introduction of modern business methods into the 
work of the church, the infusion of its life with the 
virile and intense application of sanity and system 
to specific ends which marks the business man of 
our day, the church will be relieved of its shame of 
being constantly defeated in the reforms it under- 
takes, and of doing half-heartedly and always inef- 
ficiently every piece of community work in which it 
engages. 

There is a wealth of suggestion for the work of 
brotherhood in the following program, prepared by 
an experienced Christian politician, at the request 
of the men of a local brotherhood. 

A Program for Men's Clubs on Citizenship ^ 

I. A series of lectures to be given, not necessarily by 
professional politicians, or office-holders, but preferably by 
practical men competent to discuss the questions raised. 

1. The lecturers should be approved by the Board before 
they are allowed to speak as representing the organization. 
They need not be Baptists. They should not be of the 
class of office-holders of doubtful reputation. 

2. The Subjects for such lectures. These subjects might 
be divided into several classes. In each class there are 
groups of subjects. 

(i) Subjects relating to local government, as for in- 
stance : Our Local Institutions ; Our Local Officers ; Sal- 



1 An outline prepared for the Chicago Baptist Brotherhood, by 
the Hon. Francis W. Parker, chairman of the citizenship committee 
of the brotherhood. 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK 1 27 

aries, Commissions, and Fees as Paid to Local Officers and 
Government Agents; Elections and the Election Ma- 
chinery. 

(2) Subjects relating to the party, particularly the local 
organization. Under this head one would discuss: The 
County Organization; the Ward and Precinct Politician 
and the Methods by which he Secures and Retains Control ; 
the Politician's Tools, or the manner in which he uses 
churches, business men, tax. 

(3) Subjects relating to the voters. Purchasable Voters, 
or an explanation and exposition of the degree to which 
votes are bought, or at least secured for a consideration, 
with an explanation of the manner in which various per- 
sons are bought without realizing it. 

(4) Subjects relating to candidates. Method of judging 
candidates, as for instance, by their standing in the com- 
munity, their property and the way they have obtained it, 
their reputation in private affairs, their actual prior per- 
formance in public life, their companions, associates, etc. 

(5) Subjects relating to the influence of non-political 
men and institutions on politicians: The Saloons or the 
Liquor Traffic; the Reform Associations; the Lobbyists; 
the Professional Reformers, who reform as an incident 
and graft as a business; the Public Service Corpora- 
tions; the Large Taxpayers. 

IL Literature 

1. A bibliography might be compiled which would place 
in the hands of every one the means of becoming informed 
on all of the above and other subjects of a like nature. 
Short descriptions of various books would enable any one, 
with a little effort, to find out what he wants to know, 
and where he can obtain the information, 

2. A series of syllabi on the various subjects ought, in 
time, to be prepared and distributed, and possibly used 
in connection with such lectures. 



128 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

3. A political handbook. A political handbook of local 
government and institutions, election laws, containing maps 
of the various districts and some statistical information, 
with party organizations, etc., would be a useful and 
valuable thing, and if some organization got it up, it could 
be handled with profit, and perhaps with the advertising, 
could be made to pay. Every man who is directly or 
indirectly interested in politics, and all men of a public 
character, professional, newspaper, etc., would need such 
a book, and if it were furnished at a proper price would 
buy it. It would have to come out in frequent editions to 
bring forward the changes, but that would not be a very 
serious expense as the plates could be carried and new 
editions be gotten out not oftener than once a year, and 
perhaps not oftener than once in two or three years. 

III. Propaganda. Something more than mere instruc- 
tion, or study, is plainly possible. 

1. Nothing resembling the entrance of the church as 
such or any of its organizations as such in politics is to be 
recommended. 

2. The organization should stimulate and encourage its 
members to be active in local politics, at least to the ex- 
tent of participating in their respective party, club, and 
precinct meetings and elections. In other words, it ought 
to be known that the right kind of a political movement 
and the right kind of a candidate can get without money or 
price through the men's club that co-operation and as- 
sistance without which it is practically impossible for a 
campaign to be conducted by a man of moderate means. 

3. It would seem to be perfectly proper for the candi- 
dates and pubhc officers of any and all parties to be in- 
vited to appear before the club under proper regula- 
tions to express their opinions on public questions, to 
make their pledges and to oflfer their explanations, and to 
answer questions to be submitted to them by a proper com- 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK 12g 

mittee at the request of individual members. Unfit candi- 
dates and bad officers will be slow to come, but good 
ones would welcome the opportunity. 

4. The club might have a non-partisan committee on 
information to report from time to time on the candidates 
for office and the conduct of public officers. Such reports 
could set forth the easily established facts touching such 
candidate or officer, his age, occupation, family connection, 
associates, positions on great pubhc questions, previous 
record in public life, previous record in business life, the 
reports made from time to time on his career by the 
various organizations accustomed so to report, to the end 
that the members of the club might be accurately and fully 
informed before voting. 

This program contemplates rational education and rea- 
sonable activity on the part of members of men's clubs in 
connection with public and party affairs, activities, and 
officers. 

The foregoing plans were outlined for a Baptist 
brotherhood. In entire independence of them at the 
time they were being formulated, 
their principles were being actually ^^ ^^^ 
applied in the case of the men of the First Presby- 
terian Church of Elkhart, Ind. The work of this 
group of men is described by the president of the 
local brotherhood, Mr. J. W. Butler.^ 

Soon after its organization our local brotherhood dis- 
covered that if we would interest the men whom we 
wished to reach, we must present to them something in 
which they had a personal interest. In line with this 
policy we decided to touch them on their most vulnerable 

' Quoted from " The Presbyterian Brotherhood," February, 1909. 
I 



130 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

Spot, their pocketbooks. It so happened that taxpaying 
time was near, so we decided to answer as nearly as pos- 
sible the oft-repeated query, "Where do the taxes go?" 
One of our members was assigned the task of securing 
authentic data. His report was presented in the form of an 
address at our next meeting, under the caption, " Where 
Your Taxes Go." It proved exceedingly interesting to 
a large number of taxpayers who attended our meeting, 
and many then and there joined our league. Some one, 
not a member of the league, and whom the writer has been 
unable to identify, furnished the funds to have the lec- 
ture printed in pamphlet form and mailed to every tax- 
payer in the city. This gave us prestige as a useful organ- 
ization — a prestige which has increased with each meeting. 

Following this lecture, we took up the subject of "The 
City Beautiful." We made a complete map of the city on 
a large scale, laid out a comprehensive plan for a boule- 
vard encompassing the city, and connected the several 
parks and cemeteries, with a view of creating a sentiment 
among the citizens for systematic improvement of our 
streets. This met the approval of the Board of Public 
Works, an Indiana institution, all of whom entered heartily 
into our plans. From the sentiment expressed at the 
meeting, they take it to be the expressed wish of our 
citizens that they shall carry out the plan as far and as 
fast as possible. This lecture also was printed in pamphlet 
form and distributed. 

This theme was continued at a subsequent meeting, where 
we had our school superintendent present an address 
wherein he advocated the co-operation of teachers and 
pupils in a scheme to start a systematic effort to beautify 
the individual home, by carefully kept lawns and other- 
wise. 

Then the league took up street improvement in detail. 
Letters were written to more than a hundred towns and 
cities, asking for information regarding pavement. Various 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK I3I 

Specimens of paving material were secured and all the 
information possible obtained concerning same. All this 
was also printed in pamphlet form and circulated. In 
one case, through the efforts of members of the league, 
an effort to force objectionable pavement upon the residents 
of a prominent street was thwarted. The organization 
proved to be just what was needed at a critical time. 

In every case we have acted as Christian men, in a 
Christian spirit, and in a practical way; and to this fact 
we owe what success we have achieved, which I am 
pleased to say is no small measure, for our efforts are 
looked upon by every one as entirely disinterested, honest, 
and efficient, and we have the co-operation of many whom 
we could not get with us in any other way. 

It is our aim to take up the other live questions which 
come up from time to time, secure actual facts, and present 
them to our people, so that they may have definite in- 
formation regarding those things in which our citizens are 
interested. 

All that the fraternities have long been doing in 
the care of their sick and needy may and will be 
done by the brotherhoods or these 
organizations must certainly be held '"^ " ^™^ 
to be false to their very name. They will do more 
than extend the glad hand in social gatherings; 
they will extend the laden hand of love in days of 
necessity ; they will be among their fellows all that 
the Great Brother was to men, and is to men 
through his own to-day. Many large Bible classes 
are already doing precisely these things. These 
classes carefully watch over all men moving into 
their communities. They prepare lists of such men ; 



132 THE FFFICIENT LAYMAN 

they follow them up until they are related to some 
helpful organization; they assist them in finding 
suitable boarding-houses. Brotherhoods and classes 
even conduct employment bureaus, receive weekly 
reports of all members, visit the sick, and are in all 
respects mutual aid societies and true fraternities. 
One of the best known of the classes of this kind is 
that which was formerly conducted by Mr. John D. 
Rockefeller, Jr., in the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 
New York City. The present leader of this class, 
Mr. W. S. Richardson, writes regarding its activ- 
ities : 

We put forth much effort in the way of getting every 
man at some sort of service outside the regular class 
work. We have a strong committee. The opportunities 
and whole scheme of work is presented to the class at 
some session, and recently we had reports on an appeal 
made at a small dinner at the church. We do not limit 
work or workers to our own church conventions. 

Closely allied to us, however, is a settlement work which 
we do urge. We have a strong Sunday-school and social 
work in a needy district. The class has charge of a noon- 
day shop-meeting. We have also several, probably eight, 
men taking charge of small boys in the Big Brothers' 
movement. 

At least thirty men are doing regular work in the 
above lines. Then, at least ten more are doing definite 
work in the Young Men's Christian Association Branches. 
And a large number we know are serving in different 
kinds of church social and philanthropic work in the city. 
Some more serve in the home church and Sunday-school. 

We have no regular employment bureau, but we do 
secure positions for young men, old or new members. 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK 1 33 

As illustrating the adoption of some of the plans 
of the fraternities by the church brotherhoods, the 
form of " reception of members " 
into the Harper Chapter of the Bap- J^^^'^^ ^"" 

. ^ rratermty Ideas 

tist Brotherhood is given below. 

This is the form used at the organization of this 

chapter; it may undergo subsequent revision: 

The President. The next thing in order is the admission 
of new members. Has the membership committee any 
report to make? 

The Chairman of the Membership Committee. Mr. 

President, there are in waiting A , B , C , 

D , E , F , who have been presented by the 

membership committee and regularly elected by the chap- 
ter. They have paid their membership fees, and now seek 
formal admission to the Harper Chapter of the Baptist 
Brotherhood. 

The President (to chairman of the Membership Commit- 
tee). You will admit them. (The chairman of the commit- 
tee or other brother designated for the purpose will then 
repair to the outside room where the candidates are wait- 
ing, and conduct them into the assembly room, stopping at 
the door after all are within. The members will preserve 
perfect quiet as the president, or some brother designated 
by him, reads from the Bible as follows:) 

Scripture Reading. Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, 
saw two brethren, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, 
his brother, casting a net into the sea : for they were fish- 
ers. And he saith unto them. Come ye after me, and I 
will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left 
the nets and followed him. 

And again Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he 
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also : 



134 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

and greater works than these shall he do; because I go 
unto the Father. 

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; 
and so shall ye be my disciples. 

Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill 
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it 
under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto 
all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine be- 
fore men; that they may see your good works, and glorify 
your Father who is in heaven. 

My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to 
accomplish his work : Say not ye, There are yet four 
months, and then cometh the harvest? Behold I say unto 
you. Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they 
are white already unto harvest. 

Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I 
was hungry and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye 
gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 
naked and ye clothed me ; I was sick and ye visited me ; 
I was in prison and ye came unto me. Verily, I say unto 
you, inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, 
even these least, ye did it unto me. 

He that is not with me is against me; and he that 
gathereth not with me scattereth. 

(At the completion of this Scripture lesson the chair- 
man of the membership committee will conduct the candi- 
dates before the president of the chapter, who will say:) 

The President. The object of this organization is to 
strengthen the efficiency of the church and to advance 
every good work in this neighborhood. It does not in- 
tend to duplicate existing organizations or activities, but 
to induce its members to support and earnestly participate 
in all organizations and movements in this community 
having for their purpose the advancement of the Chris- 
tian religion and the betterment of human society. With 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK I35 

this understanding of our ideals is it still your pleasure 
to become members of the Harper Chapter of the Baptist 
Brotherhood ? 

(Assent being given the president will say:) 

The President. Let us with reverence look to God in 
prayer. 

(The president, or such brother as he may designate, 
shall offer prayer. After prayer, the president will say:) 

The President. As a public expression of your intention 
to add your strength to that of the brothers of the Harper 
Chapter it is required by our rules that you give your 
assent to the pledge, by which we all are bound. You will 
say, I, repeat your name, and pronounce after me 

The Pledge. I pledge myself: 

1. To aid in the advancement of the principles of Chris- 
tianity. 

2. To assist in the furtherance of the undertakings of the 
Baptist denomination. 

3. To aid and encourage this church in its various ac- 
tivities. 

4. To take and perform the duties of some official posi- 
tion (approved by this chapter) in connection with this 
church or Sunday-school; or, otherwise, 

5. To identify myself immediately with, and take an 
active part in at least one non-remunerative organization 
or movement (approved by this chapter) not connected 
with this church, but looking to religious, charitable, social, 
or political betterment. 

6. To report on my service in any such capacity as and 
when this chapter may direct; and 

7. To ask and receive the suggestions or criticisms of 
the chapter and its members touching such activity. 

(After the pledge has been given the president will say:) 
The President. You will now sign the roll of the 

chapter, attached to the constitution and by-laws, thus 

making yourself a brother among us. 



136 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

(When the member has signed the roll the president will 
say:) 

The President. It is with pleasure that I now give you 
my right hand in cordial welcome to membership in the 
Harper Chapter of the Baptist Brotherhood ; and in- 
troduce you to those who, with you, have pledged them- 
selves to active service looking toward the advancement of 
the Christian religion and the betterment of human society. 

(The ceremony may be completed by singing "Blest be 
the Tie that Binds.") 

A class of adult men in Schenectady, N. Y., has 

an " Emergency Fund," from which loans are made, 

without interest, to those members 

Brotherly Service , . . , 1 t^ • • j 

who are m special need. It is said 
that in no case has any one abused this privilege. 
The men of the Calvary Baptist Church, of Minne- 
apolis, have a luncheon club, which meets every 
Monday at one of the restaurants in the city. The 
Brotherhood of Birmingham Church, in Toledo, 
Ohio, had a policeman open the discussion on " The 
Police Force and the Board of Public Safety," at its 
brotherhood meeting. The brotherhoods of four 
churches in West Haven, Conn., formed a basket- 
ball league for the winter, and secured the town hall 
in which to play the games. 

Many pages might be filled with accounts of the 
activities of the brotherhoods. These instances are 
suggestive only of the significant facts that here is 
an organization which is working aflfairs out in its 
own way, where men are themselves working out 
their own problems and finding avenues of useful- 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK I37 

ness through which they spontaneously express 
their own religious life. 

Given such activities, the brotherhoods will be 
self-perpetuating. They will regard the boys as 
the men who are to take their 

1 rT>, -11 1 ^1 The Boy Problem 

places. The men will solve the 
boys' problem in the church. Wherever there are 
men you will find boys. Wherever men will 
lead boys will follow. If the church of the father 
is masculine^ there will be no hiatus in the boy's re- 
ligious development. There will be no great exodus 
of boys at the beginning of the adolescent period. 
The opportunity for the men with the boy Hes in 
his wilHngness to follow where men lead. Just as in 
our public schools we have been trying to mold a 
boy's character with a woman's gentle hand, and 
so have succeeded either in effeminizing the boy or 
in disrupting the school discipline; so in the Sun- 
day-school and church, we have wondered why we 
could not hold boys with sisterly ties and a feminine 
atmosphere. No matter whether a man knows the 
Bible or not, he must go into the Sunday-school and 
be with the boys, simply because he knows boys. 
The boy needs more by far the Bible that this man 
is than all the Bible that all the exegetes can give. 
One man with a man's ideals, one really honest 
man, even though he cannot tell the precise differ- 
ence between Exodus and Ezekiel, can do more with 
boys of twelve or fourteen than a dozen women who 
might have the Bible by heart. In the measure that 



138 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

men work with the boys they will win and hold 
men. The brotherhood that is working for to- 
morrow is working with the boys to-day. It is self- 
perpetuating because it is thus securing and training 
its own future workers. 

Perhaps the simplest, readiest, and certainly one 
of the most important forms of service for the 
The Boy and the brotherhoods lies in the training 
^^ and instruction of boys. The boy 

of fourteen lives in a world altogether different 
from his mother, or his aunt, or the good young 
woman whose heart he unwittingly almost breaks 
by his Sunday-school indifference. He is becoming 
concerned with the world in which he lives. He is 
still more deeply concerned with the world within 
himself, with the struggle and stress due to his 
own dawning sex-consciousness. He ought to be led 
to know men, to know his world, to corrie to an 
understanding of society, to see the place of the 
kingdom in the world. Only a man can do this for 
him. In no small measure, the permanent success 
of the brotherhoods depends upon whether the men 
will be brothers to the coming men. 

The Big Brother movement, organized by Mr. 
Ernest K. Coulter, in 1907, to place each boy, com- 
ing up to the courts on his first ar- 

The Big Brother ^^ • . i i ^i i r 

^ rest, m the brotherly care of some 

man, is a type of work suited to the men of the 
brotherhoods. Without waiting for boys to be 
arrested, they may make it their business each to 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK I39 

care for some one boy, be a true brother to him, 
knowing him at home, going with him in his ways 
and taking him in theirs, bringing him into helpful 
environment, into a boy's club, into the church and 
school; and, above all, making him know that he 
is his friend. 

St. Paul's UniversaHst Church, of Chicago, is 
working out the problem of service for men of the 
brotherhoods. The " Men's Club " has a Social 
Service Club, from which certain directors are ap- 
pointed, who are made fully responsible for the 
work of the church with the boys. These directors 
agree to supervise personally this work, and to care 
for its support. Another group, known as " the 
council," is appointed to take charge of promoting 
all the athletic interests of the church. 

It is worth while to note, with some detail, the 
work which the men of this church are doing with 
the boys. Besides a " castle of the Knights of 
King Arthur," there is a boys' club, which is open 
to any boy in the neighborhood who will agree to 
obey its rules. 

A Typical Boys' Club 

Dues. According to age — $1.00 and $1.50 yearly. Pay- 
able in ten monthly instalments. 

Privileges. Athletics — Indoor Baseball; Basket-ball; 
Track Team. Games — Parlor Pool, Checkers, Dominoes, 
Quoits, Chuck-a-luck, Ring Toss, Baba-Gaba, Ten Pins, 
and many more, old and new. 

Arts and Crafts — Free instruction in Basketry, Chair 



140 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

Caning, Copper and Brass, Leather, Printing, and other 
crafts. 

The Reading-room — Open daily except Saturday, 3.30 
to 5.30; 7.30 to 9.00 p. m. All the popular magazines, 
including the " Youth's Companion," " St. Nicholas," and 
the "American Boy." Hundreds of books of Fiction, 
Poetry, Travel, and Adventure, Fairy Tales, History, Biog- 
raphy, and Nature Study. 

Story Telling. Every Tuesday at 4 p. m. is " Story-tell 
Hour," when the most popular story tellers in Chicago will 
entertain the members of the club with famous stories of 
all lands. 

Boyville. Because our public schools afford no adequate 
practical training in the duties of citizenship, we have 
organized for the boys a Boyville, a miniature municipality, 
and we strongly urge every patriotic parent in the com- 
munity seriously to consider its importance to his boy and 
through his boy to the city. State, and nation. 

Briefly stated, Boyville is an organization of boys, be- 
tween the ages of nine and eighteen, based on the lines of 
a regular municipality, and all the municipal officers are 
represented from Mayor to Alderman, and including 
Boards of Education, Health, and Athletics. 

The purpose is to train the boys through the play 
spirit into a knowledge of the working of a city's govern- 
ment. To that end there will be regular meetings of a 
Boyville city council, attended by the city officers and the 
aldermen, regularly elected by the citizens, where the boys 
will receive a thorough training in parliamentary law at 
the hands of an expert, and where they will learn all the 
machinery of legislation through the introduction and pas- 
sage of such laws and ordinances as may seem necessary 
for the governing of Bo3^ville life. Here too, they will 
learn the meaning of the initiative and referendum, and 
the power of recall, all of which will be exercised when 
it is deemed necessary. 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK I4I 

Athletics. Character may be defined as a plexus of 
motor habits. Muscles are the vehicles of habituation, imi- 
tation, obedience, character, and even manners and customs. 

We do not regard our athletic work as an end in itself, 
but rather as a part of the training of the whole man. 
We believe with Doctor Hall, that "in the gymnasium 
the gospel of Christianity is preached anew, and seeks 
to bring salvation to man's physical frame, which the still 
lingering effects of asceticism have caused to be too long 
neglected in its progressive degeneration. As the Greek 
games were in honor of the gods, so now the body is 
trained better to glorify God, and regimen, chastity, and 
temperance are given a new momentum. The physical 
salvation thus wrought will be, when adequately written, 
one of the most splendid chapters in the history of 
Christianity." 

Physical Examination and Record. A physical exam- 
ination by a regular physician is made of every boy and 
girl who joins the athletic classes, and of any other re- 
questing same, and an anthropometric chart kept for future 
comparison. At the end of every year a prize will be 
awarded the boy and girl showing the best all-round 
development. 

Men need responsibility ; they crave responsibility 
for worth-while things. They never will be content 
so long as they are men, to be re- 
sponsible for simply holding the 
fort. The brotherhoods, for the sake of the men in 
them, must steadily engage in active, aggressive ex- 
tension work. No man objects to working hard at 
the thing that is pushing out, is getting somewhere. 
Here there is appeal to the heroic, to the love of the 
difficult and the daring. 



142 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

If you go at it in the right way you may kindle 
as much enthusiasm over working for a church as 
over a football game. The added advantage comes 
in that the enthusiasm is, or ought to be, that of the 
man on the gridiron, and not the weakening emo- 
tion of the would-be sport in the grandstand. Work 
for boys becomes fascinating, exciting, the finest 
sport in the world, and the kind of thing that any 
sane, human, red-blooded man will want to do. We 
must cease to hope to win men by appeals to their 
loyalty to an institution, by begging them to come 
to church and sit still or to " serve " on a commit- 
tee. They will be won when there is a man's work 
to be done, and their work for others will save their 
own souls and then the church need not fear for 
itself. 

We have been offering men the parlor when we 
ought to have called them to the field ; we have been 

Extension of the Saying, " Here are pleasant pews and 
Kingdom ggft music," when we ought to have 
been saying, " Here is hard work, here is a world to 
be won, here is a kingdom to be established, here are 
the dragons of human greed and sloth, the walls of 
ancient custom and privilege to be assailed." We 
have not '' played up " the big things and the real 
things of the Christian life to men. The spirit that 
made pioneers, the spirit that compels a man to 
leave his ease and push into the wilderness to con- 
quer and shape a new world is in the men of our 
day. The opportunity for the extension of the king- 



THEIR EXTENSION WORK I43 

dom of God among men is the one appeal that will 
win them more than any other ; they need to see this 
world, as Canon Freemantle's book puts it, " as the 
object of redemption." 

The men of the brotherhoods will tire quickly 
of working for this small cause or the other in an 
organization; their enthusiasm will be aroused, the 
deepest places in their natures stirred if they can 
but be brought to see that they are serving, not some 
church nor even some denomination, but that they 
are serving their world ; they are working for a uni- 
verse; they are moving in that glorious army of 
noble souls that through all time have been saving 
the world, witnessing to the light, extending the 
kingdom, and bringing heaven to earth. 



CHAPTER X 

THE BROTHERHOODS — THEIR EDUCATIONAL POLICY 

It will be at once recognized that the educational 
activities of the brotherhood have been discussed 
in the chapters preceding this; the important thing 
now is to relate the work of the brotherhood in 
training its members to the broader work of the 
whole church of which that brotherhood is no small 
part. 

It is of first-rate importance that there should be 
clearness of vision and exactness of agreement be- 
tween the pastor, as the educational 
Educahonal j^^^^j. ^f ^^^ church, and those who 

L^o- ordination 

are leading the brotherhood in its 
work, and that this agreement should be very spe- 
cific as to the directly educational plans of the latter. 
It is true that few churches have a clearly conceived 
educational plan ; perhaps the men who feel the need 
of this in the brotherhoods can arouse the leaders in 
the church to a sense of the same need for all the 
work of the local church. 

The leaders in the men's organization ought to 
study the needs of men thoroughly and determine 
just what educational contribution their organiza- 
tion can make ; the whole work of the church ought 
144 



THEIR EDUCATIONAL POLICY I45 

to be studied so that there may be co-ordination be- 
tween the activities of the various parts, including 
the men's organization. Then whatever studies or 
other forms of educational opportunity may be 
offered by the brotherhood should be listed and 
advertised as a part of the whole curriculum of the 
church. 

It is not unlikely that the brotherhoods may play 
a large part, if they but seize their present oppor- 
tunity, in leading the churches into educational unity 
within themselves, in bringing together all the parts 
of the work of the church and relating them with 
the educational principle as their nexus and in pre- 
senting in an orderly, well-considered manner, all 
the activities of the church, including both instruc- 
tion, inspiration, and service as a complete cur- 
riculum of religious education. 

The whole matter of the religious-educational 
work of the brotherhood needs to be in wise and 
strong hands. The local chapter or society of men 
may well appoint a committee on education to con- 
fer with the committee for the same purpose in the 
church. The opportunities in the direction of edu- 
cation in the brotherhoods are so many and im- 
portant that this ought to be the strongest of all 
its committees. 

One catches some glimpses of the possibilities in 
this direction in looking over the following outlines 
of proposed activities for certain of the subcommit- 
tees of a local brotherhood, and remembering that 



146 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

these were prepared by laymen working in commit- 
tees composed of laymen. 

Outline of work of the educational committee of 
a brotherhood: 

I. To promote the organization 
An ^ucational ^f suitable classes for religious edu- 
cation. To secure proper courses of 
study and efficient teachers and leaders. 

2. To study by investigation and correspondence 
the present educational work of the men's classes 
and clubs in Chicago. To collect information on the 
educational work being done by other branches of 
the brotherhood and by classes and clubs through 
the country. 

3. To suggest forms of educational activities for 
the classes and clubs. To aid in carrying out these 
plans. 

4. Suggest courses of study, particularly: Bible 
study, Christian service, missions, etc., Christian 
ethics, social and civic problems, religious work for 
men. Discover courses available. Outline courses 
(in co-operation with other committees, as e. g., the 
committee on devotion). Suggest text-books and 
other material. Aid classes in securing special lec- 
tures and speakers. 

5. Plan to lead the men of the brotherhood in 
definite service for our own educational institutions, 
as e. g., study of religious life of students at the uni- 
versity. Lead in erection of guild house at univer- 
sity. 



THEIR EDUCATIONAL POLICY I47 

6. Send a circular to all classes and clubs, outlin- 
ing plans of this committee, inviting correspondence, 
offering help and advice. 

7. Maintain bureaus of information on courses, 
studies, leaders. 

8. Plan a conference on Bible study and educa- 
tional work in men's classes and clubs. 

Even the convention of the brotherhoods will, un- 
like many other conventions, serve educational ends, 
if they will carefully consider such Through 

questions as the following, which Conventions 

were formulated for a brotherhood convention held 
recently. Perhaps one fact is just as significant as 
the topics themselves, namely, that these subjects 
were not treated in set speeches delivered by noted 
orators, but they were assigned in advance to small 
working committees. These committees prepared 
careful reports, which were read at the convention 
and, after presentation, discussed by the delegates 
in a spirited manner. The following are the topics 
sent to the committees : 

The Brotherhood and Christian Citizenship, or Chris- 
tian Men in Politics. 

The Brotherhood and the Ministry, or How to Increase 
its Power and Significance in the Church and out of it. 

The Brotherhood and Religious Education, or the Edu- 
cation in Schools, Colleges, and Universities of Laymen to 
Equip them for Work in the Sunday-school, the Church, 
and the Pulpit as Lay Preachers or ultimately as Or- 
dained Ministers. 

The Brotherhood and the Utilization of Non-church- 



148 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

members of the Community having the same Sympathies, 
Interests, and Rules of Conduct as Church-members. 

The Brotherhood and Lay Preaching. 

The Brotherhood, its General Purposes and Form of Or- 
ganization, Local, State, and National. 

The Brotherhood and the Sunday-school. 

The Brotherhood and Social Betterment. 

The Brotherhood and Christian Men and Money. 

The Brotherhood and Denominational Advance. 

For the educational purposes of the church it is 
of capital importance that the plans of the brother- 
hood shall be co-ordinated to all its 
Brotherhood and educational activities. Any courses 

Sunday-school -^ 

of study offered by the brotherhood 
ought to be under the direction of the educational 
committee of the church, which would see to it 
that these courses were rightly related to any in- 
struction which might be offered in the Sunday- 
school. 

The brotherhood need not be an organic part of 
the Sunday-school, but the relations of the two 
ought to be close and clearly defined. The organi- 
zation may well undertake to care for that division 
of the Sunday-school which is designed for adult 
men. In any case the brotherhood ought to con- 
duct certain classes which meet in the Sunday- 
school. 

These Sunday classes of the local chapter of the 
brotherhood would constitute the religious educa- 
tional activities of the chapter as it relates itself to 
the Sunday-school of the church. The plan would 



THEIR EDUCATIONAL POLICY I49 

be for the brotherhood to conduct one or more 
classes in the Sunday-school. These classes would 
be exclusively for men, both those in the member- 
ship of the brotherhood and those at present out- 
side, especially for their systematic instruction in re- 
ligion and the religious life. The subjects of study 
should include all those that grow out of the re- 
ligious needs of men in their personal and social re- 
lations, and ought clearly to aim to prepare men to 
discharge those duties which the brotherhood re- 
quires of its members. 

Such Sunday classes would be regarded as regu- 
lar classes in the adult department of the Sunday- 
school, subject to the care and oversight of the 
Sunday-school officers. The courses and instruction 
would be selected in conference with the appropriate 
officers of the Sunday-school. 

Naturally the subjects studied in the class meet- 
ings of the brotherhoods will be often quite different 
from the conventional subjects ar- 
ranged for Sunday-school classes. Brotherhood 

This is not the place to discuss the 
matter of the Sunday-school curriculum, but it is 
necessary to remind ourselves of one educational 
principle which ought to determine the materials 
used and their order of study in the Sunday-school 
curriculum, and which must be applied to the ma- 
terials of study in such groups and classes as the 
brotherhoods. That principle is that the needs and 
life interests of the pupils or students must deter- 



150 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

mine the subjects and the methods of study. The 
courses in a brotherhood class or chapter must be 
determined, not by any mechanical plan of studying 
the Bible or the doctrines of the church, not by any 
attempt to fit the work of this group into that of 
some other study groups, not by any ideal of biblical 
knowledge or any aim in theological or doctrinal 
examinations, but by the spontaneous interests of 
these men, and by their immediate life needs. 

There is grave danger that we shall miss the real 

opportunity with these men if we try to make their 

gatherings only addenda to the 

'T^^^^^^^,^^^,*^® Sunday-school— no more than the 

Brotherhood , , -r^ ., , , , 

old Bible classes under new names. 
Men do need to study the Bible; they need all its 
power and inspiration in their lives ; no other liter- 
ature can so enrich their lives. But they need to 
study the Bible, not for the sake of the Bible, but 
for themselves; not with the Bible as the aim and 
end, but with the Bible as a means, a guide, an in- 
spiration, a help toward some other end, whatever 
high aim may be theirs at that time. There is all 
the difference in the world between studying the 
Bible itself, as one studies botany for example, and 
studying the live questions of our own day, the 
questions to which we come every day without 
either spur or invitation from without, those that 
are foremost in our interests and sympathies, study- 
ing these in the light of the spirit of the Bible; 
there is the difference between, on the one side, a 



THEIR EDUCATIONAL POLICY I5I 

mechanical and never-successful attempt to carry 
yourself back into a dead literature, and, on the 
other, making that literature breathe through its 
living, undying spirit, into the very life in which we 
live. You get an altogether new angle on Isaiah, 
and one rich in significance and value when you ap- 
proach him from the viewpoint of your discussion 
of present-day social problems. He lives then, and 
his life, like that of many others who never can die, 
becomes part of the life of our day. 

Some courses which have been followed in such 
classes are given as indicative of this method of 
approach to religious thought and life. Some of 
the best examples have been worked out by men 
leading groups of university students. The first two 
were followed by men in the University of Michigan 
under the leadership of the Rev. Fred Merrifield : 

I. The Student's Question Box. i. Has Religion a 
Natural Origin? 2. Is Religious Experience Real and 
Valid? 3. The Basis for Belief in God. 4. Inspiration and 
Revelation. 5. Are the Gospels Reliable? 6. Miracles. 
7. The Virgin Birth of Jesus. 8. The Divinity of Jesus. 
9. The Trinity. 10. Theories of Atonement. 11. Is the 
Church a Failure? 12. What is Our Need of Prayer? 
13. Can a Modern Student Have a Positive Religious 
Message ? 

Questions will be welcomed; up-to-date books will be 
lent; the director will gladly arrange conference hours 
for further discussion of these and similar problems. 

II. The Testing of Christianity, i. Christianity and 
Judaism. 2. Christianity and Paganism. 3. Christianity 
and Greek Philosophy. 4. Christianity and Asceticism. 



152 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

5. Christianity and Churchism. 6. Christianity and Racial 
Distinctions. 7. Christianity in an Age of Science. 

An effort to answer the questions : Just what is Chris- 
tianity? Is it losing its hold to-day? Can it survive this 
critical period? How much worth has it for us to-day? 
The history of Christianity clears the ground for a fair 
answer. 

The outlines of courses, given subsequently in 
the chapter on the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation, are equally well suited for use with brother- 
hood groups. 

The course given below as showing what has been 
done in classes for men, is interesting because it was 
drafted out of inquiries proposed by the men in the 
class; it was accompanied by careful investigation 
by members of the class, different subjects being 
assigned, usually to three members each week, and 
it was presented with very brief introductions by the 
class leader, affording ample time for free discus- 
sion which, of course, was guided as carefully as 
possible by the leader. The wide possibilities of 
such studies is suggested by the fact that this course 
was taught each Saturday night in a Young Men's 
Christian Association, and on each Sunday morning 
following in a men's class in a Sunday-school ; 

Our Day in the Light of the Gospel 

I. Personal, i Society and Social Ideals. Individual. 
Society. Social Ideals. Socialism. 2. Problems of the 
Family. The Home. Family. The Street. 3. Child 
Labor. Women in Industry. Their Wages. Effect on the 
home, on Industry. Sweating. 



THEIR EDUCATIONAL POLICY 1 53 

II. Problems of Production, i. Labor. Economic Place. 
Organization of Labor. Strikes. Unemployed. Industrial 
Socialism. 2. Conditions of Labor. Hours. Places. Ac- 
cidents. Insurance. Rights of the Worker. 3. Improving 
Conditions in Industry. A Debate by Selected Teams on 
the Proposition "That the conditions in industry from the 
viewpoint of the worker are improving." 4. Wealth. 
Capital. Money. Use of Wealth. Ethics. Corporations 
and Capital. Trusts. 

HI. Problems of the State, i. The City, Place in 
American Life. Housing. Immigration, Regulation, as 
e. g., Licenses. 2. Politics. Causes of Corruption. Con- 
duct of Legislation. Reform Movements. Citizenship, 

IV. Problems of Society, i. Education: Duty. Agen- 
cies. Need of Schools. Parks and Museums, Churches 
and Religious Agencies. 2, Protection of Society. Crime. 
Justice. Punishment. Prevention. Regulation. 3. " So- 
cial Possibilities in the United States " : A Debate. " Are 
conditions most favorable to ideal social conditions in a 
democracy, or do we need a new type of political organi- 
zation in Socialism?" 

Summary by class leader. 

Despite the difficulties as to teachers duly quali- 
fied, the church must tackle this problem of teach- 
ing and training her men and women intelligently 
to understand and piously grapple with the needs 
of society and the social duties that devolve on all. 
What a magnificent service may be rendered if all 
these splendid young men and women, coming by 
the thousands into the adult classes and brother- 
hoods are organized into the great army of God's 
ministers to a needy world; if they are fused and 
wrought together into a great unified force for the 



154 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

redemption of society! They will be more than a 
balance of power in politics; they will be the un- 
questioned power, the dominant vote, the conquer- 
ing force bringing his kingdom to come and his will 
to be done here. If we miss this opportunity, if we 
fail to apply to the magnificent modern social pas- 
sion the direction and dynamic of religion and 
spiritual ideals, then we shall have the strong men 
and women, still seeking blindly to save the world, 
serving outside the church that bears the name of 
the world's Saviour, while the weaker ones will be 
within its pale lamenting its inefficiency, and won- 
dering why it should be. 

The vision of the service the men and women of 
this adult movement may render is enough to thrill 
any one ; before it the glory of knight and crusader 
fades away. God give us a new age of chivalry — 
the chivalry of humanity, the passion of Jesus, 
wisely, scientifically, efficiently serving to save so- 
ciety as these men and women are trained and 
taught in all their ministry. 



CHAPTER XI 

YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION 

Perhaps it is hardly fair to inquire concerning the 
contribution which the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation is making toward the reHgious training 
of adult men in view of the specific limitation of its 
activities to younger men, as stated in its name ; but 
since it is one of the agencies dealing with men, and 
since it does not practically limit its ministry to 
young men, and does not exclude those who are 
adults, it may be worth while to study it briefly from 
the point of view of its services for adults. 

The proportion of men twenty-five years of age 
and over in the membership or in the rooms and on 
the gymnasium floors will vary in 
different cities. One generalization, 
however, will hold true, that the proportion of 
adults in the religious meetings and classes is 
much greater than in the gymnasium and shop 
classes. In many instances the general religious 
meetings, especially those held on Sunday after- 
noons, which are usually of an evangelistic type, 
will be found to contain far more men over twenty- 
five than under, and in many Associations there are 
meetings which are practically dominated not only 

155 



156 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

by adults but by those who have passed the zenith 
of Hfe. Not infrequently the Bible classes minister 
almost exclusively to mature men, and in some in- 
stances coming under the writer's observation, the 
adult men who had for a number of years consti- 
tuted such classes, were not at all of the type to im- 
press virile young manhood with the attractiveness 
of Christianity. As exemplifications of anything 
except petrified piety, they were dismal failures. 

In at least one other department adult men are in 
evidence; this preponderance is strongly marked in 
the voluntary offices, committees, and executive 
boards of the organizations. In a large number of 
instances the Associations are administered, outside 
of the services of paid offices, by men who have 
seen many years since their young manhood. 
Whether the years have ripened, sweetened, and 
strengthened their sympathies for young men, or 
have swept them far away from any fellow-feeling, 
is always a critical question. 

The Associations, when considering the service 

they may render to mature men, are brought to face 

one serious question: Is adult 

Adolescents and manhood ovcr twenty-five years 
of age so entirely distinct from 
manhood under that age that the adult man stands 
outside of the sphere of the special purpose of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, or that it would 
be unwise for this institution to make provision for 
men of that period ? The differences between adults 



YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 1 57 

and later adolescents are clearly marked. At about 
twenty-five a man enters upon entirely new types of 
experience. Yet the differences are not such as to 
create any antagonisms. Men of twenty do not feel 
toward men of twenty-five as boys of fifteen feel 
toward them. The differences are different. If there 
is room for both boys of fourteen and men of 
twenty, there ought to be room for both men of 
twenty and those of thirty years of age. The young 
man of later adolescence needs the young adult, that 
is, the man entering the years of maturity. On the 
other hand, this adult needs the young man. 

If the Association has a service to render to adult 
men, what provision does it make for them? What 
is its program for the religious training of adults? 
Does it make systematic and scientific provision 
therefor ? One would look for provision to be made 
in at least three directions : 

1. In social groupings of men of like experience 
and maturity. 

2. In formal instruction based upon the life ex- 
periences and needs of adults, and 

3. In the direction of service and activities suit- 
able for the development of adults. 

The adult man looks almost in vain in the 
Young Men's Christian Association for any group 
or groups exclusively for those of 
his own grade of general experi- *^' roupmgs 
ence and development. The one exception to this 
is in the special classes in the gymnasium, some- 



158 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

times designated " Business Men's Classes," and, 
perhaps one ought to add, occasionally a technical 
educational class which by its nature includes only 
adults; the latter, however, hardly comes under the 
consideration of religious training. While it is 
true that many men on reaching the age of twenty- 
five are protected by home duties and ties, there are 
still many others not so attached who need the fel- 
lowship of those of their own age and experiences, 
and there can be little doubt but that the Association 
might render valuable service if it did no more 
than promote groupings of adults under social con- 
ditions. Younger men might be held longer if there 
was a sort of an advanced membership to look for- 
ward to. 

I. Biblical Instruction. Taking the Bible work of 

the Young Men's Christian Association as a whole, 

outside of the college and university 

Systematic Instruc Associations, it is doubtful if it is 

bon for Adults 

meetmg any special need anywhere 
in direct Bible study that could not and ought not to 
have been met by the churches. The Associations 
seem very largely to have simply carried over the 
plans for Bible study which were already accepted 
by the churches. Some modifications have been 
made, but they have been in the direction, rather of 
dealing with details of method and study plans, than 
of effecting any changes of a fundamental character 
which would adapt Bible study more closely to the 
lives of men, or enable it to meet any needs not met 



YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 1 59 

by the church. But this is less a reflection on the 
Associations than on the churches, for it must, in 
justice, be said that the Association has done many 
things that the churches have neglected to do, that 
it has led the way in the systematic literary and 
doctrinal study of the Bible, and while the Sunday- 
school was still promoting vaulting exercises at brief 
intervals between artificial islands of biblical ma- 
terial, the Association was planning and carrying 
out continuous courses of study. The international 
Y. M. C. A. Committee issues a circular showing 
how its text-books may be grouped for continuous 
and somewhat indefinitely graded courses. 

Only in very recent days has any attempt been 
made by the Associations to grade the material ac- 
cording to the developing lives of the students. 
Some careful studies have been made recently and 
outlines of curricula prepared especially for boys. 
One of the best of these is that presented by Prof. 
C. W. Votaw, of the University of Chicago.^ Prof. 
II. M. Burr has also made a series of investigations ^ 
for the basis of such a curriculum. Generally speak- 
ing there is as yet no arrangement of material care- 
fully graded through the years above boyhood. It 
is possible to take the many text-books provided and 
arrange them into schemes of study, but the schemes 
are not worked out on anything like a genetic basis. 
There are problems of the religious life which are 

* Published in "Education and National Character," p. 25 if. 

* First published in " The Association Seminar," Springfield, Mass. 



l6o THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

peculiar to the adult man. It ought to be possible 
for him to find Bible study based upon his own life 
needs. It is time to cease the multiplication of text- 
books from the historical, literary, and dogmatic 
bases, and to furnish some from the man basis. 

The following courses, given at the Association at 
Washington, D. C, indicate an attempt to meet the 
religious needs of adults in Bible study and in the 
problems of religious thinking and work. The 
example is given, not as peculiar to one city, but as 
indicative of what some of the best city Associations 
are doing. 

I. The Fundamentals of the Bible, i. The making of the 
Bible. 2. Why we believe the Bible. 3. The institution of 
the Bible. 4. The Old Testament a necessary preparation 
for Christ. 5. Christ in the home, State, and society. 6. 
Reasons why we believe Christ to be divine. 

II. The Social Teachings of Jesus — Their Meaning and 
their Application in Present-day Life. Lecture studies with 
discussion : i, Jesus' point of view ; the material and 
method with which he worked. 2. Jesus' conception of his 
social mission : To rediscover personality and to establish 
a righteous society. 3. Jesus' first social fundamental : the 
individual personality, the basis of civilization. 4. Jesus' 
second social fundamental : Society his ideal, a kingdom of 
God on earth. 5. Jesus' third social fundamental : Service, 
the basis of greatness in his kingdom, 6. Jesus himself, 
the exemplar of his teaching, the struggle between the 
selfish and the social ideal of life — Christianity's problem. 

III. Christian Leadership. A course for training of 
young men in the Christian service: i. The layman's part 
in Christian activity. 2. The teacher as a leader: (i) 
Laws of teaching. (2) Jesus as a teacher. 3. How to 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION l6l 

prepare a talk: (i) Bible index, concordance; (2) text 
analysis; (3) best books. 4. Hints on public speaking. 
Lecture by an experienced public speaker. 5. Principles 
of organizations: (i) Committees; (2) printed matter; 
(3) social, etc. 6. Hints on the work of the following: 
President young people's society; president men's Bible 
class; secretary men's Bible class; president boys' clubs; 
ushers at church services. 

IV. The Bible as Literature. 1. The making of the 
English Bible. 2. The poetry of the Bible. 3. The oratory 
of the Bible. 4. The short stories of the Bible. 5. The 
Bible ideal of God. 6. The Bible ideal of man. 

V. Hymns, Illustrated by Stereopticon Views. Not an 
exhaustive or critical course in hymnology, but a presen- 
tation in popular form of some hymns — music and words — 
which have been of great service, an account of their 
origin and authors and some stories concerning them. 

2. Life Problems and Ethical Studies. The 
greater needs in the formal instruction of adult men 
lie outside the literary or historic study of the Bible, 
and in the study at first hand and directly of the im- 
mediate problems and questions of their lives. In the 
city Association of to-day a man can take his choice 
in almost any aspect of devotional or literary Bible 
study, and in almost any study taught in a technical 
school or a commercial school, as well as in many 
studies taught in the colleges, but he will rarely find 
any treating those problems which most seriously 
perplex him, which most distinctly modify and deter- 
mine his personal character, and concerning which 
he is most anxious for guidance and information. 
The sixth edition of the " Educational Prospectus," 



1 62 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

issued 1908, by the International Young Men's 
Christian Association Committee, gives a list of one 
hundred and fifteen subjects and courses of study; 
nineteen are commercial and business courses, six- 
teen are academic, seventy-four are industrial and 
technical, and six are grouped under the head 
of social science. In this last and smallest group are 
listed those studies which are of deepest interest and 
gravest importance to the character development of 
men ; of these six, only three are really of this char- 
acter. They are entitled economics, ethics, soci- 
ology. These courses are outlined as follows: 

Economics, one season. For students, business 
and newspaper men, and leaders of thought and 
public opinion. 

Preparation: United States history, general his- 
tory, civil government, business law. 

Topics : Fundamental ideas of economics, right of 
property, wealth, economic evolution of the race, 
production of wealth, capital and labor and their co- 
operation, consumption, just distribution as regards 
wage theories, rent, ownership in land, taxation, 
socialism, exchange, value and price, market value, 
monopolies, money, credit systems, banking systems, 
clearing houses, international trade, free trade and 
protection, trusts and trust problems. 

Ethics, one season. For men who have had at 
least the equivalent of a high-school training. 

Topics: Fundamental ideas of the subject; psy- 
chological basis of ethics; physical nature of man; 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION 163 

psychical nature of man; moral consciousness; law 
of duty — the Hebrew ideal of duty, the Epicurean, 
the Stoic, the Christian; motives — egoistic, altru- 
istic, of justice, of mercy, social duties, personal 
duties; virtue; relation of ethics to Christianity. 

Sociology, one season. For men who have had at 
least a high-school course. 

Topics: Basal ideas; origin and scope of subject; 
land and its population; the family, its nature and 
history; tribal relations and problems; the State, 
its idea, development, and its problems; the school 
and its problems; the church, its idea, unity and 
worship; social problems; institutions, charitable, 
benevolent, and reformatory; morality and law; 
social consciousness; relation of sociology to social 
reform. 

That the courses outlined in this prospectus do 
not tell all the story is evident from the following 
outlines which have been in practice and found to be 
suitable for adults. They were given to groups of 
adult men, averaging about forty in numbers at each 
attendance, and meeting on Saturday evenings for 
these round-table conferences, following an evening 
dinner, the men remaining at the table during the 
conference. The members of the class were men 
averaging twenty-eight years of age. 

Course I. The Ethics of Everyday Living 

A series of round-table conferences for the frank and 
informal discussion of the " Rules of the Great Game." 



164 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

Suggested Reading : General — " Life Problems," Interna- 
tional Committee Y. M. C. A. ; " The Right Life," Stimson ; 
" Manual of Ethics," Mackenzie ; " Practical Idealism," 
Hyde ; " Levels of Living," Cope. 

The rules as to : i. The Body. The basis of success. 
Health. Laws of sex. Reading : " Reproduction," G. S. 
Hall; "Worry," Saleeby; "Human Body," Martin. 2. 
The Intellect and the Higher Life. Place of mind. 
Getting an education. Fulness of living. Reading: 
" Rational Living," King ; " Right and Wrong Think- 
ing," Crane; "Jesus Christ and the Christian Char- 
acter," Peabody. 3. The Home and the Family. Our debts 
to home, parents, brothers, and sisters. Building our 
homes. Reading: "The Happy Family," Hodges; "The 
Family," Thwing. 4. Friendships. Men. Women. Obli- 
gations. Pleasures. Reading: "Friendship," Black; also 
Emerson, Stevenson, and King. 5. The Use of One's Lei- 
sure. Recreation. Improvement. Hobbies. Amusements. 
Service. Reading: "Worry," Saleeby; "A Young Man's 
Questions," Speer. 6. Work. A blessing. Preparation. 
Fidelity and success in work. Reading : " Duty," Smiles ; 
" Work," Black. 7. Business, Honor, and Success. Prob- 
lems of office and store. What is business success? 
Reading: "A Business Man's Religion," Wells; "A Man's 
Value to Society," Hillis. 8. The City and the Nation. 
Making a city. The man and the nation. Patriotism and 
political service. Reading : " The Coming City," Ely ; 
" Uncle Sam and His Children " ; " American Ideals," 
Roosevelt. 9. The Church. Is it worth while? Have we 
a duty to it? Reading: "The Churches and Young 
Men," Cressey; "The Church and the Changing Order," 
Mathews ; " Christianity and the Social Crisis," Rausch- 
enbusch. 10. Reforms and Social Progress. Relations 
to society. Responsibility for development. Price of 
progress. The social conscience. Reading : " Social Sal- 
vation," Gladden; "Jesus Christ and the Social Question," 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION 1 65 

Peabody ; " Religious Movements for Social Betterment," 
Strong. 

Course II. Ten Great Questions in Religion 

I. What is man's place in the universe? 2. How shall 
we think of God? 3. How shall we think of Jesus? 4. 
What of the place of Christ in history? 5. How shall we 
think of the Holy Spirit? 6. Why evil, temptation, sor- 
row in the world? 7. What is the use of prayer? 8. 
What is there beyond death? 9. What are the demands of 
Christianity upon character? 10. What is religion? 

One of the most interesting facts to be recorded 
in connection with the courses just outlined is the 
keen interest taken by the men in the class discus- 
sions. While the leader left more than half the 
period of seventy-five minutes to the men, the time 
was usually far too short. This was especially true 
of the discussion of the questions of personal ethics. 
In several instances the greater number of men in 
the class remained for from one to two hours after 
adjournment for the study of the questions raised. 

The interest of adults in the Association will usu- 
ally be keen in matters of political and civil life. A 
course of lessons on " Our City — Facts and Sug- 
gestions," was very attractive to mature men in one 
Association. Individuals or small groups were asked 
to investigate and study special problems in advance 
and to report to the class. The leader spent only a 
part of the time in gathering up and analyzing the 
reports, and the whole group had ample time for 
free discussion. Such studies become intensely 



l66 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

practical; they deal with facts; the reports show 
things as they are, while the discipline of investiga- 
tion, study, and careful discussion train men for dis- 
criminating and efficient public service. 

An excellent outline of a similar study is the one 
prepared for the Religious Education Association, 
by Prof. H. M. Burr, of the International Young 
Men's Christian Association Training School, at 
Springfield, Mass.^ This course deals with 

The Problems of a Twentieth-century City 

Introductory, i. The City in its Relation to Civilization. 
Historical. 2. The Growth of Modern Cities. Causes and 
Consequences. 

Health. 3. Dwellings. Tenements and Tenement-house 
Reform. 4. Streets — Relation to Health, Cleaning, Regu- 
lation, Use. 5. Parks, Playgrounds, Public Baths, Recre- 
ation Piers, etc. 6. Hospitals and Sanitaria, Public Hy- 
giene. 

Morals. 7. The Saloon. Its Social Function, Suppres- 
sion, Substitution. 8. The Brothel. The Social Evil. Con- 
trol of Prostitution. 9. The Theater. Wholesome and 
Unwholesome Amusement. 10. The Gambling Den. The 
Gambling Habit in Business. 

Philanthropy. 11. The Care of Dependents, Orphans, 
Paupers, etc. 12. The Care of Defectives, Idiots, Insane, 
Blind, etc. 13. The Care of Delinquents, Jails, Reforma- 
tories, Courts, Police. 14. The Organization of Charities, 
Indoor and Outdoor Relief. 15. Welfare Work. Special 
Work in Store and Shop. 

Education. 16. The Public School. Its Function and 
Administration. 17. School Extension. The Wider Utili- 

^ The plan for teaching such courses is outlined in " The Aims of 
Religious Education," p. 305f. 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION 1 6/ 

zation of Buildings. i8. Technical and Physical Educa- 
tion. Religious Education. 

Administration. 19. The Mayor, Council, Aldermen, De- 
partments, Choice and Control. 20. Municipal Reform. 
*' The Shame of American Cities." 

Welfare Agencies. 21. The Church. Work of Institu- 
tional Church. 22. The Social Settlements. Neighbor- 
hood Guilds. 23. The Young Men's and Young Women's 
Christian Associations. 24. Other Welfare Agencies. 25. 
The Social Mission of Christianity. 

3. Activities for Adult Men. One important de- 
velopment now taking place in a number of the As- 
sociations is the enlistment and direction of their 
voluntary workers in various types of practical re- 
ligious and social service. It is training its men to 
teach Sunday-school classes, and sending them out 
to take charge of groups of boys. It might very 
well seek further and closer co-operation with 
churches by stimulating and training its men for 
other forms of religious ministry such as pastors, 
voluntary assistants, parish laborers, visitors among 
men, conductors of missions ; and still more suitable 
to men would be the work of boys' clubs, brother- 
hoods, and other agencies among men. 

4. Social Service, In a few Associations men are 
being directed in social service. They are studying 
community problems and conditions. They are 
coming to understand their own social life and its 
present dangers and needs, studying these things 
at first hand as revealed in their own communities 
and in the light of the ideals of the Christian king- 



l68 HE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

dom. Association men are often active leaders in 
reform movements. They have done invaluable 
service in making public social evils, in banishing 
bold and organized agencies for the entrapping of 
young men, in cleaning up areas of cities which 
had been hitherto subject to vice and crime. A 
streetcar motorman said recently that reform ef- 
forts by certain Association men had accomplished 
more in a few weeks to making safe and clean a 
certain notoriously evil thoroughfare than all other 
agencies in many years. It will be a splendid thing 
if the Young Men's Christian Association shall be- 
come the agency for directing and organizing the 
activities of men toward the realization of the king- 
dom of heaven. It will be a noteworthy assertion of 
the higher values of religion, if its familiar evangel- 
istic note shall express itself practically in that 
significant reality upon the ideals of which evan- 
gelism is primarily based, namely, " Peace on earth 
and good will among men." To actively engage 
in the service of relieving distress, remedying 
wrong, fighting abuses, and making truth, righte- 
ousness, and spiritual values predominant, to aid in 
bringing in the kingdom that is righteousness, joy, 
and peace, service such as this will have the highest 
possible values for the religious training of men. 

The broadest possibilities for a Young Men's 
Christian Association in the religious training of 
adults lie not in the direction of the duplication of 
things which the churches are already doing or which 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION 169 

belong to the professions in the churches, but in the 
direction of those types of organizations and forms 
of activities which belong peculiarly to organizations 
composed wholly of men, those particularly which 
the Association, by reason of its peculiar position, is 
able to promote. 

5. Shop Lectures. One of the most interesting 
forms of educational service rendered by the Young 
Men's Christian Association has been worked out 
in a new type of '' shop meeting." Residents in 
manufacturing centers are usually familiar with the 
meetings conducted in large shops by the religious 
workers from the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ations. In these meetings hymns are sung and the 
forms of a religious service followed with necessary 
brevity and adaptation to the surroundings and con- 
ditions while the principal feature is a short evangel- 
istic address. Much good has been accomplished 
by such meetings. When the speakers have been 
men who have talked simply, with absolute candor 
and sincerity, and especially when they have talked 
with unaffected and genuine common human feeling 
with the men addressed deep feelings have been 
stirred and serious thoughts have followed. The 
largest good, however, comes from a form of re- 
ligious meeting more common in England than in 
the United States and conducted usually independ- 
ently of any religious organization, when groups of 
the men gather with their fellows and frankly talk 
on the concerns of religion. 



170 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

The new type of shop meeting would, perhaps, 
hardly be called a religious meeting. It has been 
conducted with signal success in factories and 
houses where large numbers of employees can be 
easily gathered. The Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation sends one of its secretaries or some other 
person, on the invitation of the principals of the firm 
to the establishment, usually at the noon hour. The 
employees being assembled at their own choice, 
and without any compulsion, in a large room, an 
address of fifteen minutes' length is given on some 
topic, as " Profit in Off-duty Hours," " Making 
Good Resolutions," " Dangers of City Life," " Ma- 
king a Better City," " Factors in Personal Prog- 
ress." One firm, employing many thousands, caused 
the outlines of the different series of such addresses 
to be printed and circulated amongst its people. 
Two such outlines are given just as they appear in 
the pamphlet issued by this concern.* 

The Rights of the Community in Which You LrvE 

To expect you i. To be civilized, clean and strong, 
physically, mentally, morally, and socially. 2. To be self- 
supporting, (i) By preparation; (2) by present support. 
(3) by making ready for emergencies. 3. To head a family. 
(i) No hasty or foolish assumption of family obligations. 
(2) The most serious business of one generation is the 
rearing of the next. 4. To be intelligent and consider- 
ate of the needs and rights of others, (i) Less of igno- 
rance, prejudice, and selfishness; (2) More of sympathy 

* The Sears Roebuck Company, Chicago. 



YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION I7I 

and helpfulness. 5. To keep posted on your part in the 
solution of civilization, (i) By reading and study. (2) 
By performance of civic duties. 

Good Company for Our Minds 

I. Good neighbors are always of value. For their fellow- 
ship, through which we gain: (i) Instruction from their 
knowledge ; (2) inspiration from their ideals. These ad- 
vantages we gain through conversation with them. 2. 
An author converses with us through his book, (i) Dis- 
advantages of this kind of conversation : a. It is one- 
sided; no question and answer, b. It lacks the element of 
personal magnetism. (2) Advantages of this kind of con- 
versation: a. The written statement is deliberate and apt 
to represent the author's best thought, b. It is always at 
the command of the reader, irrespective of place or con- 
ditions. 3. A man's choice of reading is a choice of com- 
pany for his mind. 4. Character is influenced as much by 
mental as by social fellowships. We tend to become like 
those with whom we associate, whether in person or 
through their writings. 5. Good company for the mind is 
within the reach of every one to-day. (i) Through inex- 
pensive, but good books and magazines. (2) Through free 
libraries. "A man is known by the company he keeps." 
You will be judged by what other people see you reading. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH 

It often happens that the really critical years for 
the college man are not those when he is exposed to 
the much-advertised temptations of the campus and 
the classroom, but are those following graduation, 
when he will go back to the village or to the city 
and try to fit himself into the lives of those who have 
remained there during the years of his training. 
The complaint is very common that the college 
spoils men for practical living and for service in the 
churches. The particular point of criticism seems 
to be that they return from the schools either feel- 
ing that the ideas of the old home church are so 
hopelessly antiquated that they cannot possibly be- 
come identified with it, or having acquired during 
the years of freedom from church responsibility 
habits that now prevent their taking an active share 
in church activities. 

The first difficulty must be met by the churches. 
The content of the instruction in the colleges and 
universities is not likely to change, at least in the 
direction of reversion. The problem before the 
church is to meet the spiritual needs of those who 
have not had the discipline of the college, and at 
172 



THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH l73 

the same time to use the powers and meet the 
needs of those men who have had that training. 
It is worth while to look first at the possibilities 
of adapting the work, the inspirational and in- 
structional activities of the church to the needs of 
the college graduates. If that can be done through 
organization and instruction in the church, the rest 
is relatively easy. 

The college man is in especial need of religious 
activity. His life has been, in the greater number of 
instances, very largely one of con- 
templation, of investigation, and '^^®^°^^^^^** 
study. He needs to work out some 
of his theories. He needs contact with the real, 
working world. In the measure that college life has 
been monastic he needs to know the life of men as 
it is, not the seamy side alone, but the side of warm 
fellowships, the joys of common service, to discover 
that there may be as much warmth of feeling and 
fusing of wills and interests in cleaning up a city 
ward or even carrying on a Sunday-school as in a 
foot-ball series. The student, coming into manhood's 
place, needs some practice in altruism. It is true 
he is an altruist, both by nature at the student age 
and by grace of the ideals that the school should 
have held aloft. But this altruism is apt to be of the 
poetic order, embalmed in verse or floating airily 
in visions. Certain tendencies of school life militate 
tremendously against practical altruism. Men (and 
women too) are in almost all colleges and universi- 



174 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ties for long periods the recipients of the bounty of 
others, of private donors, or of the State. Their 
tuition and registration fees do not pay for the 
splendid halls, gymnasiums, and apparatus provided ; 
still less do they suffice to maintain the teaching and 
executive staff. The student often unconsciously 
tends toward the parasitic type. So much is done for 
him for so long that he often acquires the habit of 
receiving without feeling any stimulus to give or to 
make adequate compensation. Somehow he must 
set up new reactions. Through beginning to pay 
society part of what he owes for the years of study 
and training, he must acquire the habit of regarding 
all life as the opportunity to pay to the present our 
indebtedness to the past. Therefore he especially 
needs opportunities for practical altruism. 

The student needs, for his own sake, service in 

the church or with specific religious institutions. 

Here he can put his theories into 

e es o e ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ actual. The critical 

spirit naturally cultivated during the school years 
thus can test its judgments, can determine the worth 
of its own discrimination. He is a religious being, 
and life stands to him and says in relation to re- 
ligion, as in relation to every function, learn to know 
this power through its use. We must avoid the 
rather common error of regarding the student as 
sui generis; he is only a human being, after all ; but 
it is not too much of a generalization to say that the 
graduate man is commonly a good deal of an ideal- 



THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH 1/5 

ist. He has been contemplating ideals for so long 
a time, that, for example, he is almost sure to have 
social theories well in advance of common thinking. 
Clear cut as his ideals may be now, they will ere 
long dwindle down to little more than thin air un- 
less they find expression in some concrete forms. 
For their preservation dreams need deeds. Then 
service tries out ideals, co-ordinates hopes with ac- 
tualities, some ideals it tones down to fit the facts, 
others it quickens, stimulates, and crystallizes by 
blunt and cruel contact with facts as they ought not 
to be. When the church accuses college men of un- 
willingness to work, it is worth while to ask if the 
churches have a work fit for these men, whether 
the churches are prepared to use them. 

When the young man, or woman, comes back 
from college to the church, say not to yourself, 
" He is probably spoiled for all religious usefulness 
by his academic career ! " Did your career spoil 
you ? If he is spoiled, may it not be in part the fault 
of the church which had him in hand during the 
years of preparation for that career? Rather say, 
" Here is a man trained ; we need trained men ; the 
wise course will be to discover the task for which his 
training fits him ! " The college men are the leaders 
in civic life, in social life; but we lose them in the 
churches because we either expect them to sit still 
and express their souls in the- same phrases as their 
fathers used or we ask them to take up childish tasks 
where their training cannot count. 



176 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

While the matter of discovering suitable work for 
college men in the churches is difficult of solution, 
Problem of ^^ equally serious problem is likely 
Instruction to be that of providing suitable in- 
struction. Frequently the particular point of weak- 
ness in the church or, at least, that which becomes 
the immediate occasion for the separation of the 
graduate man from the church is the character of 
the instruction offered by the church, particularly in 
the Sunday-school. It is so entirely different from 
that to which he has been used; the teachers are 
often wholly blind to many things which have be- 
come axiomatic to the student and their whole range 
of ideas is often pitiably limited. Yet they have 
sympathies and ideals which he needs. No mistake 
could be much greater than to imagine that all his 
needs would be met if his old-time professors could 
come and lecture on these religious subjects. He 
needs more than an academic atmosphere or a pro- 
fessional degree of technical efficiency. He needs 
that which will relate religion vitally to his life as 
a human being. 

The college graduate is a man in the world of af- 
fairs whose life is enriched by the world of thought 
and vision. The characteristics of 

"^^^ pJuman'^^' ^^^^^ classes for such men will be 
determined by the needs and char- 
acteristics of the men ; their needs are primarily those 
common to all adult men; even the college gradu- 
ate is but flesh and blood. But the point of con- 



THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH I77 

tact with him will not be quite the same as in the 
case of the man who has not seen the student world. 
The Bible class must relate itself to the life of 
this man as he is. The teacher must see with the 
college graduate's eyes ; if he would lead these men, 
he must himself go in their way. The non-college 
teacher works under a tremendous handicap, and 
we have no right to assume needless handicaps. 
There are so many reaches of their lives which he 
cannot enter that, other things being equal, the 
college-bred teacher has great advantages. 

The point of view in teaching, the content of the 
teaching, the type of class organization must each 
relate itself to the habitual point of view, the intel- 
lectual content of the mind, and the social tendencies 
of the college graduate. This classroom for the 
study of the Bible must win his respect for the same 
reasons that he learned to respect the work in the 
college classroom, for its sincerity, its scientific ear- 
nestness, and accuracy. There must be the same 
sense of an always open door between the laboratory 
and the oratory. He is accustomed to think in 
terms of the orderliness of the universe, of the abso- 
lute reign of law ; the laws that hold good in all the 
world now must be shown as holding good in 
higher realms of life; the soul must be served by 
the sciences. 

But, since we are concerned with adult men, it is 
necessary to turn aside from the familiar theme of 
the adaptation of Bible teaching to the mind of the 



178 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

modern student, to think of the characteristics of 
Bible classes for the college man who is now out in 
the world of affairs, who has taken up a man's busi- 
ness, and who begins to understand life's signifi- 
cances and to be oppressed with its burdens. 

What are the characteristics of the college man in 
the world of affairs ? At least some of these would 
be : Social consciousness; idealism; sense of reality 
expressing itself in desire for definite service. 

This is the day of the ethical emphasis, an em- 
phasis due in no small measure to the fact that our 
„ society now has so lars^e a leaven 

Ethical Ideals r ^u\ ' a ' ^ £ u 

of the tramed mmds of men who 
have felt the essentially ennobling, moralizing effects 
of university life. These men have learned to see 
things steadily and to see them whole. At any rate, 
you will find the present-day moral awakening in 
business and in politics to be very largely a move- 
ment of college men. The present-day ethical em- 
phasis is social, rather than individual. The college 
man feels this. Often to him this seems to be some- 
thing wholly distinct from the emphasis of organ- 
ized religion. 

Here is the opportunity of the Bible class ; through 

its teaching it must co-ordinate a man, as a spiritual 

being, to his social environment; it 

Spmtual^ must relate him relis^iously to his 

Soaal Livmg , , x 11 

real world. It must do more than 
dream of a far-off city of God ; it must help him to 
make his city that city now, to bring the kingdom 



THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH I79 

to come. We must find in the Bible life for our 
days; not dead saints, but living social dynamics. 
Teachers must catch such an understanding and 
vision of the social passion in the Old Testament as 
Walter Rauschenbusch has suggested in his review 
of the prophets in " Christianity and the Social 
Crisis." We need to see Jesus in this new light. 

The next characteristic is that of idealism. Edu- 
cation saves one from the imprisoning clay; it aids 
one to live for the life of thought 
and feeling. The educated man 
ought to be the man always hungry in spirit. In- 
teresting as questions of history or of scientific in- 
quiry may be to him, it is safe to say that only to 
the sophomoric mind do these hold first place. The 
man who has the business of life on his hands is 
asking the Bible class to do something far greater 
than solving riddles in geology or astronomy ; he is 
asking that in the place where men meet in the name 
of the Highest life shall feel the touch of the things 
sublime, shall learn to love that which is high, and 
to feel the pulse of a larger life and to see the vision 
of the King in his beauty in the land that is very 
far oflF. 

The next characteristic of this college man in the 
world of affairs is his sense of realities, his desire for 
service. He is not educated, he is 

, r . J J. J 11 7 Realities in Work 

not bemg educated normally unless 

his life moves on from analysis, from philosophy, 

from synthesis into practical service. If he is 



l80 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

worthy of the learning that has touched his life, 
he is not content to recognize the causes of social 
ills; he is concerned with the cure and with his 
part in the application. The ethical and social con- 
tent of the teaching of the class will suggest definite 
things for him to do. The class will come to feel 
its own social solidarity; it will become an organi- 
zation for service. The ideals and inspiration 
gained will find application and outlet in work for 
his world ; the Mount of Transfiguration will come, 
as Raphael has shown, very close to the valley 
where the needy and suffering are. No Bible class 
will long satisfy men unless it stimulates to service 
and discovers avenues for the expression of its im- 
pressions. One of the most difficult problems we 
have before us to-day is the discovery and organi- 
zation of opportunities and means of expressional 
activities for the religious lives of men. A Bible 
class must be a laboratory as well as a study group ; 
problems must be handled clinically, with endeavors 
to their solution. The teacher is the man who can 
see, not alone the long vista of the past lined with 
prophets and sages, but who also sees adown the 
future and in the ways of the present the paths of 
God, and who leads men to apply the light and life, 
the glory and aspiration, the vision and revelation 
of yesterday to the darkness, pain, and sorrow of 
to-day for the sake of the beauty, order, and right- 
eousness of to-morrow. 

The Bible class, then, for the trained man of the 



THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH l8l 

disciplined mind in the world of affairs, will bring 
the light of all the ages and of the infinite and eternal 
to relate a man to his world as it is to-day, to lighten 
his own way and nerve his strength for the service 
of his day, for the ordering and salvation of his 
times. It will bring about in him the spirit that 
shall ever say, as a man among men, " I am come 
that they might have life, and that they might have 
it more abundantly." 

The next need in the church for the rapidly grow- 
ing class of college graduates is that the service 
which the church asks of them shall Ugj^g 

be such as will readily enlist their Trained Workers 
co-operation. They are supposed to be the trained 
men, the disciplined leaders in the community. The 
church has need of such workers; they are in need 
of precisely the kind of work she can give them 
to do. 

One of the needs of the average college is what 
might be called, " a cure for culture." There is a 
dangerous tendency toward regarding the aim of 
a college course as the impartation of the power 
to utter a peculiar shibboleth, to regard life with 
superficial contempt, and to feel too keenly the 
superiority conferred by the advantages of learn- 
ing. This leads many to despise the old church, 
with its apparently petty activities, to yearn for 
great world service, to long to go on dreaming 
of romantic achievements or to stand aloof with the 
mental nose uptilted while the unfortunate be- 



l82 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

nighted ones take up and carry on the burdens of 
the church. The college man needs to know that 
all this training is for practical ends, that all his 
visions are that he may descend from the mount and 
minister to men. The most lasting impression of 
any college course ought to be that a man is there 
for the purpose of making the most of his life in 
order that he might have the more life with which 
to minister to men. Culture for any other end than 
service is supremely selfish, leads but to moral and 
spiritual suicide. 

The church must find work for the trained men 
and women. It must not complain if they drift 
away when all it asks of them is that they shall come 
back into the fold, after their years of training, be 
treated as little lambs, and be content to sit in their 
appointed places. The advantages of the years of 
training soon pass away unless there is at once 
afforded the opportunity for the use of the skill de- 
veloped. The church makes a splendid workshop 
after the apprenticeship of the college. 

But precisely what work can these trained men 
do ? They ought to be the leaders in doing the very 
kinds of things already outlined in earlier chapters 
as suitable and necessary activities for men in the 
churches. The social and community work of the 
church needs men who know social principles, men 
who have been trained in observation. The groups 
of boys need trained physical directors, they need 
m.en who can give them the inspiration of the trained 



THE COLLEGE MAN IN THE CHURCH 183 

life. There is plenty to be done in developing the 
social and athletic life of the church for the man 
who desires to keep up his college habits in these 
directions. Then there are study groups, not only in 
the Bible and in distinctively religious subjects, but 
in many other branches. Why should not the church 
minister to all the needs of its people? Why should 
not these young men and v^omen who come back 
fresh from the acquaintance and discipline of the 
sciences offer their services, or be drafted into serv- 
ice, to instruct groups of lads or others who have not 
had the opportunities for such training ? One of the 
most helpful agencies of a church, which is, on the 
whole, of the old type, in London, England, has been 
for many years its classes in " Sciences and Arts," 
where a number of young men have received their 
first impetus toward higher education. Besides the 
benefits conferred on the students, the teachers not 
only thoroughly enjoyed their work, they were be- 
ing constantly developed and benefited by it. Cer- 
tainly there are many who might serve the church 
and the kingdom in this way who, without some 
such form of service, will lose all interest in it. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 

The college and the university of the future will 
have a much larger contribution to make to the 
church than ever before. Hitherto they have been 
content to have a share in the earlier preparation of 
the ministry; there are indications that soon they 
will be actively engaged in training the laity. If 
one has a right to expect that the college will train 
for full living, he has a right to expect that it will 
train for that part of his living which relates to his 
spiritual service in the community. He has a right 
to expect that it will equip him for larger living as a 
citizen, as a homemaker, as a brother to his fellows. 
Certainly a large part even of the duties involved 
in these relations will be discharged through the 
church. 

At any rate, one of the normal relations of a 
man's life is to a spiritual organization, to a church. 
When he goes into the church, he goes in to 
do something. Surely it is not too much to expect 
that his college course shall have trained him to do 
that something with greater efficiency. If a man 
may take work in the laboratories, part of his direct 
training for lifework as a chemist or as an engineer, 
184 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 185 

and have that count toward his baccalaureate, why 
should he not be able to take work which would be 
direct training for the service he may render so- 
ciety through his church and have such work count 
in the same way as any other technical work ? 

It would make a great difference to the men 
coming from the colleges if, on returning to their 
churches, or going into new com- 
munities, they felt that the church ^"hurl'wol^''' 
offered a field for the use of their 
trained powers, that if they were asked to do any 
work in the church it would be a piece of work for 
which they were prepared. Surely such courses 
offered in the colleges would serve to convince the 
churches that higher education was their best ally 
and would win to the schools the hearty support of 
the churches. 

The benefits conferred by such courses on the 
men taking them would be immeasurable. Practical 
Christian work in college and the study of its meth- 
ods and agencies would give religion a reality 
parallel with that of other subjects in the curricu- 
lum, would keep alive the interest in religious mat- 
ters by means perfectly normal to the student life, 
and would make his own religious life an integral 
part of his college career. 

If training of the layman for efficient service in 
the church and for the kingdom is to be made part 
of the business of the college and the university, the 
courses ought to be worked out with the utmost 



l86 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

care by representative groups of college and church 
men. 

Here is an opportunity to set up fairly uni- 
form standards, to show the practicability of college 
work, and to manifest the essential unity and useful- 
ness of our institutions of higher education. It will 
not do to import the courses of the theological sem- 
inary to the college ; it will not do to try any make- 
shift of modifying those courses to the purpose pro- 
posed. The need is not that the colleges shall train 
ministers, the need is not that the laymen shall be 
semi-trained clerics, the need is not that these men 
in the colleges shall become acquainted with the 
technical sides of the work of the ministerial pro- 
fession; it is that they shall be trained to efficiency 
in the work they may do, as laymen, in the churches. 

A number of colleges are seriously endeavoring to 
train men and women for religious service through 
special courses designed to prepare for educational 
work in the churches. At its convention, in Wash- 
ington, D. C, in 1908, the Religious Education 
Association passed this resolution: 

In view of the pressing need of leaders who can properly 
instruct Sunday-school teachers and others in the principles 
and methods of religious education, we urge the uni- 
versities to provide in their departments of education for 
specific training with reference to such leadership. 

Later a memorial on this subject was addressed to 
the presidents and the deans of departments of edu- 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 187 

cation in all the universities, in the course of which 
attention was called to the service of these institu- 
tions, as follows : 

There is a great and rapidly growing demand, not only 
for skilful teachers in Sunday-schools, but also for teach- 
ers of teachers. Even if no changes were occurring, or 
about to occur in the curriculum, the demand would be 
large. But the rapid spread of the principle of the graded 
curriculum creates a peculiar emergency. Apparently the 
people will be ready to adopt improved curricula before 
there is a supply of competent leaders. Immeasurable 
good would come to the country if we could quickly pro- 
vide the needed leaders for the local churches. 

This is a work that requires specific training from the 
point of view of the university and college departments of 
education. There is needed not only a broad philosophy of 
education, but also specific knowledge as to the forma- 
tion of a curriculum, the method of the recitation, and like- 
wise special method. As public-school teachers study the 
best methods of teaching arithmetic, so the Sunday-school 
teacher needs to be taught special method in the presenta- 
tion of Bible stories, biography, history, etc. 

Is not the service suggested in the resolution of the Con- 
vention one that the people may reasonably expect from 
the universities? In the present movement for a close 
relation between university studies and real life, the re- 
ligious training of the young, because of its significance for 
our civilization, surely deserves the attention of university 
educators. We recognize the fact that in this particular the 
responsibility of universities that are upon a religious foun- 
dation is more obvious than that of universities that are 
upon a civil foundation. We would not have any strain put 
upon the limitations of State and city universities as re- 
gards either the letter or the spirit of such limitations. 
We believe, however, that institutions of this latter type 



1 88 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

can furnish much of the desired instruction without doing 
violence to their nonsectarian character. For example, a 
purely objective study of methods and curricula is not only 
non-sectarian, it does not even involve religious instruc- 
tion at all. Further, we believe that such recognition of 
the importance of religion as would be implied in the sug- 
gested courses is in harmony with existing usage in our 
State universities as well as our legislative and judicial 
bodies. 

This communication met with so cordial a re- 
sponse as to lead to the hope that, as Prof. George 
A. Coe said, in " The Annual Survey of Progress 
in Religious and Moral Education," in 1909, " this 
ideal will some day be realized. Already several 
universities and colleges give some specific attention 
to religious education. At least one small college, 
Ripon, is dealing with the problem with serious- 
ness." 

Besides training for work in the churches, the 

man has a right to expect training for the work of 

the church in the community. In 

College Training for ^his his expectations are more like- 
Community bervice ^ 

ly to be met. Harvard University 
recognizes this principle by grouping under the head 
of " Opportunities Provided for Religious Worship, 
Instruction, and Fellowship " ^ not only the oppor- 
tunities of the Phillips Brooks House, the religious 
and philanthropic societies, and the courses in the 
Bible and in theology, but also courses in social 

1 See a valuable pamphlet of this title published by the university. 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 189 

ethics, sociology, economics, and methods of social 
reform." ^ 

On the value side of free activities in social serv- 
ice by college students, mention should be made of 
the fact that " The contact of the colleges with the 
social need is increasing through both instruction 
in sociology and voluntary service of many kinds. 
During last summer about two hundred college stu- 
dents conducted forty-nine vacation Bible-schools, 
with fourteen thousand children in attendance. In 
several instances the expenses of such student help- 
ers were met by social service scholarships pro- 
vided by fellow-students." ^ 

To many persons, however, a much more serious 
problem is that of conserving the spiritual life of a 
man during the years that he is a 
student. At first thought this might "^^^"^^'^^ *" ^^ 
seem only slightly related to the question of the re- 
ligious training of adult men because the number of 
men over twenty-five years of age to be found in 
institutions of learning as students, is relatively 
small. Yet the problems of their religious training 
while in the graduate department of the university 
are so interesting and so closely connected with the 
grave problem of the religious educational influ- 
ence of institutions of higher education as to give 
warrant for at least the mention of some consider- 



2 See " Preparation of the College Student for Social Service,' 
by Prof. John W. Gillette, in " Religious Education," April, 1909. 
8 Quoted from Coe, " Annual Survey of Progress," Sup. 



190 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

ations in relation to the religious training of adults 
in such institutions. 

It is worth while noting how largely the propor-. 
tion of adult men who are enrolled as students has 
increased in the past few decades. At first the 
American colleges were obliged to make rules set- 
ting the age of fourteen as the lowest for matricula- 
tion. Nevertheless it is said that the valedictorian 
of the. class of 1763 in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania was graduated at the ripe age of twelve. To- 
day the average age of admission is probably nearly 
twenty-one, and there will be found a goodly num- 
ber twenty-two and twenty-three years of age enter- 
ing. So that there are not a few undergraduate 
students who must be counted as adults, while the 
graduate students will be found to be nearly all over 
twenty-five. This advance in the ages is due, it 
need hardly be said, not to any increased * tardiness 
in the development of the modern student, but to the 
more rigorous requirements of admission, so that 
the secondary school course now very largely takes 
the place of that once offered in the college. 

Those problems which are peculiar to the college 

and university in the religious training of adults 

are most keenly realized in the State 

State Universities . ... * r i • i. 

universities where formal instruc- 
tion in religion is prohibited, where almost all 
the means of religious training possible in other 
agencies is debarred. It is, therefore, worth while 

* Birdseye, "Individual Training/' p. 31. 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES I9I 

to consider the religious training of adult men in 
State universities for the new light it may throw 
on the whole problem. 

But there is neither necessity, nor would there be 
profit in a discussion of the general principles of 
religious education through the life of the State uni- 
versity and of the need of inspiring all its force with 
religion, nor in any series of generalities on this 
subject. 

Doubtless we all must agree with Dr. Andrew S. 
Draper, who, as president of the University of 
Illinois, said : " There is ordinarily a very high aver- 
age, both in quantity and quality, of spiritual life in 
the university. If religion is a matter of living or 
of thinking, rather than of preaching and parading, 
there is more of it under the roofs of a university 
than in any miscellaneous assembly gathered from 
the respectable people of the earth." We turn, 
therefore, to ask : Precisely what is it we wish to see 
accomplished f 

First, that the investment made by the student, 
the investment made by the instructor, and the in- 
vestment made by the State in the State uni- 
versity shall return the fullest possible profit in the 
development in the student of high moral character, 
spiritual self-realization, and social adjustment and 
service. 

Secondly, that the atmosphere, habits, and life of 
the State university at least shall not produce in the 
student life-habits of indifference or hostility to that 



192 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

idealism, and to those ideals which are the spiritual 
heritage, the spiritual hope of the people. 

Thirdly, that, intellectually, for the student, re- 
ligion as a science shall keep pace with and maintain 
equal dignity to and command equal respect with 
every other department of knowledge, and shall be 
correlated with all his thinking. 

This does not, it is evident, mean that we expect 
the State university will lead men into an allegiance 
to churches or sects, that it will train specialists 
in religious literature or religious history, that it 
will quicken missionary zeal or religious fervor, or 
that it will develop ecclesiastical leaders. These 
are to be included in the duties of denominational 
schools. It does mean that we look for high char- 
acter, reverent, useful living, and balanced thinking, 
and all these for men as essentially religious beings 
and as parts of the fruitage of university life. 

Now, have we a right to expect any of these 

things of the State university, either as an essential 

part of its definite purpose, or as a 

Training Leaders . . . .^ 

concomitant? 
Doubtless we can accept the statement that the 
proper function of the State university is to develop 
leaders. But a prime essential to competent, trust- 
worthy leadership, is the development of the whole 
life of the one who will lead. If leaders of men are 
to be developed, we must have in mind something 
larger than the making of mechanics, laboratory 
experts, lawyers, or even preachers. There is a 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 193 

tendency to lose the man of broad culture and edu- 
cated manhood in the effort to secure specialized 
departmental leaders trained only to some minute 
detail in life's great workshop. This is to be re- 
gretted surely as much as the loss of the working 
man in the workman or " hand " at some machine, 
engaged in the atrophying detail of some item of 
toil. He cannot lead who has become lopsided in- 
tellectually or morally, who may be an intellectual 
giant, and yet a spiritual pigmy. The full man is 
essential to life leadership. Religion is essential to 
the full life. They who would be leaders of men 
must themselves be led by high spiritual visions. 
After all, the commonwealth needs men more than 
any other thing. Of what worth is all our technical 
training if those who are going forth to lead them- 
selves do not know how to live? It is not a ques- 
tion of what the churches may demand of the uni- 
versity ; the State demands that it shall produce men, 
men in whom the whole life is symmetrically de- 
veloped. 

Have we not a right to expect that at the State 
university religion as a subject of knowledge shall 
keep pace with every other depart- 
ment of knowledge? If we regard ®^^** eigion 
religion as life, and life as religion, there can be 
no hesitancy as to the answer. Leaders of men 
must know the way they are going. Religious 
thinking is not to-day a question of the subtleties of 
creeds, it has to do with the one problem of char- 

N 



194 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

acter and conduct. It is not a question here alone 
of the responsibilities of the State for the individual, 
it is a question of responsibility for all the people 
who are to be led by these leaders, taught by these 
learners. The State must not send forth blind 
leaders of the blind, nor perverted leaders of the 
perplexed. The life of to-morrow is determined by 
the learning of to-day. The. leaven that works in 
the lump goes out from the institutions of learning, 
and it works as it mingles with men, as it touches 
their intellectual and moral problems, as it affects 
the essential religious thought and habits of men. 
Intellectual and technical leadership puts upon the 
trained men of the universities a gown of authority 
to which the people pay the respect that once they 
accorded to the Geneva gown in the pulpit. The 
people, however, never mistake the cloak of super- 
ficial culture for the prophet's garment of competent 
leadership. 

Perhaps we all are agreed upon these things 
and need most to consider the practical difficul- 
ties in the way and the possible 
practicable plans of their reali- 
zation. These difficulties are best known to those 
who are officially identified with the universities. 
But to every one the most serious difficulty seems 
to lie still in public opinion on this subject. As soon 
as you speak of religious education, you meet at 
once the popular misconception of religion as either 
simply sectarian creed or ecclesiasticism. Religious 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES I95 

education still means to the greater number the 
teaching of certain facts or series of statements, the 
transference of an encyclopedia of knowledge. To 
some it means the production of some special ex- 
perience in the life of the one who is to be educated. 
The truth is that many institutions are without re- 
ligious exercise of any kind, because it seems to be 
quite impossible for the university to do what popu- 
lar religious clamor would expect it to do if once it 
should begin the task of making formal provision 
for the student's religious life. If systematic re- 
ligious instruction became a part of the curriculum, 
those ecclesiastical leaders who make the most noise 
in public would not be content until each denomi- 
nation had its professor of its own ism, nor content 
then until that professor had demolished all the 
others. Yet, in our extreme carefulness to avoid 
sectarianism, and to remain free from the least sus- 
picion of infringing the student's religious liberty, 
are we not in danger of embracing an equally re- 
grettable extremity ? Dr. H. M. Buckham, president 
of the State University of Vermont, said in his an- 
nual address before the Association of American 
Agricultural Colleges: 

I fear it might truthfully be said that, while we carefully 
clear ourselves from the charge of teaching dogmatics and 
denominationalism, we are laying ourselves open to the 
charge of teaching that manhood and womanhood may be 
complete without the religious element of character. But 
surely that is a conclusion from which we all shrink 



196 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

What, eventually, will be the civilization which does not 
generate in its thinking and leading men that reverence 
for the divine side of human nature which is the guardian 
and inspiration of all the rest? 

The difficulties are increased by the fact that that 
which we desire to see accompHshed lies so largely 
in the realms of ideals, and must seem vague and 
indefinite. Religion cannot be formally imparted; 
it cannot be taught by processes of instruction alone. 
It is not a subject that can be set up into a depart- 
ment; it is a spirit and a life which must penetrate 
and saturate all instruction and all activities. This 
saturation of the life of the university with high 
spiritual ideals becomes difficult partly on account 
of the well-known tendency to the atrophy of the 
spiritual in the atmosphere of the purely intellectual. 
With these, and other problems, there arises a ten- 
dency on the part of those responsible for university 
life to say, " this whole matter of religious life of 
the student lies outside of our responsibility ; it is a 
question for the various denominations ; they are the 
official representatives of the churches, and the 
churches are responsible for the religious environ- 
ment of their people." It will be an exceedingly 
unfortunate relegation of opportunity if this attitude 
shall become common and those who are building 
the State universities into S3mimetrical units shall 
confess that they are unable to lay the capstones 
of their edifices, if they shall invite into the uni- 
versity to finish their own work the elements that in 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES I97 

the life outside work so largely, when in competi- 
tion, for division and discord. 

All the difficulties, and they are many, only serve 
to spur earnest men on with greater eagerness to 
ask what can be done. There are 

, , 1 J Teaching Religion 

several systems, or schemes, under 

which it has been thought religion might be related 

to the student life of the university : 

First, religion as a subject of thought, occasion- 
ally introduced, as in chapel or assembly, in special 
lectures or in courses on religious literature, his- 
tory, etc. Of course it is evident that, ideally, it 
would be possible to do this without giving offense 
to any, without stepping over legal and moral re- 
strictions. In the State university, if anywhere, we 
ought to be able to find a level in religion above the 
planes of sectarianism. But practically, as we are 
aware, the instances in which this works well are 
few, indeed, and often on account of overzealous 
sectarians the plan is rendered neither safe nor 
wise. 

Secondly, religion as a science, made a department 
of university work, as is now done in several institu- 
tions. It is, however, evident that there might easily 
be chairs of Semitics, biblical archeology, and his- 
tory, etc., which might exert no more or even less 
influence on the religious life and character of uni- 
versity students than the chairs of mathematics or 
of chemistry. Likewise, one cannot but question 
whether, if we hope to save the religious situation 



198 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

by such departments, there is not here a scneme for 
teaching rehgion under false pretenses. Yet we 
cannot admit that the question of the possibility of 
a department of religion is already settled in the 
negative in the State universities. The question 
that, however, is of greater importance, is this: 
whether the formal systematized teaching of religion 
as a subject has the effect which is here sought on 
the lives and characters of men. The day may come 
when we shall have secured the recognition of re- 
ligion as a science accompanied in its study by entire 
freedom from the dangers of sectarianism. 

A third plan is that religion, as a science, shall be 
made an adjunct to university life, by means of 
theological halls or seminaries, supported and con- 
ducted by the denominations and clustering about 
the university campus. Underlying this is com- 
monly the assumption which, on the basis of experi- 
ence, seems to many to be a fallacy that religious 
education can be accomplished wholly or even large- 
ly, by formal theological instruction. If it is as diffi- 
cult to maintain the religious vitality of the theolog- 
ical student, as we know it is, the mere proximity of 
the theological seminary is not likely to be diffusing 
any superfluous spiritual force. There are some 
questions about which we ought to be fairly sure be- 
fore we throw ourselves unreservedly into the often 
agitated scheme of theological halls, denomination- 
ally controlled, as the panacea for the present re- 
ligious insufficiencies of university life. They apply 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES I99 

also to the guild houses in so far as these, by their 
courses of study, approximate to the theological 
halls. They are: Whether denominational support 
and distinctiveness will not tend to accentuate de- 
nominationalism, sectarianism? Whether there is 
not a danger of some interference with academic 
freedom as denominational authorities become 
thus officially sponsors for these extra-mural halls, 
whether there might not be danger of sectarian 
hands being thrust into university administration? 
Is there not danger too, that the guild halls may be- 
come theological seminaries before they are fitted to 
do such work in a worthy manner, and so we would 
have amateur instruction in that in which men 
ought to have the best? 

The guild halls are worthy of a more extended 
study than is possible in this brief review of the 
conditions of the development of 
religious life for graduate stu- 
dents. These halls are really religious settlements 
in the university community. Commonly a house or 
hall is rented or erected in which there are accom- 
modations for a limited number of men to reside 
and having a dining hall, with ample rooms for 
social gatherings, religious meetings, game rooms, 
and often a small religious library. A student secre- 
tary or director is placed in charge, a man of the 
student type and the school spirit, a wholesome man 
to whom the men in residence will naturally gravi- 
tate, in whom they will recognize a friend and find 



200 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

a counselor and guide. The director simply lives 
among the students, winning their confidence and 
standing ready to help them at all times. His re- 
lations are first with the men in the university; his 
responsibility is first to them and only secondly to 
any local church or even to any denomination. 

Usually courses are offered in the guild houses. 
These are intended to meet the peculiar needs of 
student life and thought and frequently deal with 
the intellectual and moral problems of the man's situ- 
ation as a student ; they discuss the relations of the 
religious thought of our times to the scientific 
thought ; they seek to relate the life of the classroom 
and laboratory to the religious life. 

The success of the guild-house plan depends en- 
tirely on the man placed in charge, and the measure 
of freedom given him by the church or denomination 
behind, permitting him to seek simply and with 
absolute sincerity of purpose to minister to the spir- 
itual, practical needs of the man. If he is forced 
to be simply a recruiting officer for the local church 
which he represents, his usefulness is practically at 
an end. 

This should be emphatically said: That in prac- 
tice, as at the Universities of Michigan and Wiscon- 
sin, the guild houses are securing splendid results, 
and that in the present emergency the plan is the 
best yet tried and, until better practicable plans are 
in operation, the guild house deserves hearty sup- 
port. 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 201 

Without losing sight of the value of institutions 
for formal instruction in religion, must we not come 
back after all to that method or 
plan which, while unavoidably lack- ^^^^^ 
ing in definiteness, is still most in harmony with both 
religion and education, and promises best to achieve 
the precise things we desire to see accomplished? I 
refer to the ideal of religion as an atmosphere and 
a dynamic of the higher life, felt all through the life 
of the university. Practical means of realizing this 
ideal are at once suggested by experience. Guild 
halls and dormitories, small, homogeneous in resi- 
dent character, would help to maintain the religious 
environment of home life. Classrooms have their 
potency, but not so high nor exercised so long as that 
of the student's domestic and social life. In the 
life outside the university buildings lie the largest 
dangers and the greatest opportunities. Resident 
halls or houses with truly human, brotherly, manly 
masters or heads, inspired by religious motives and 
strong to influence men in their higher lives would 
do more for men than all imaginable lecture courses. 
Fraternity houses, the college homes of an ever- 
growing number of men, may be directed by strong, 
clean alumni, governed by fraternity brothers with 
high, broad spiritual ideals, and become as benefi- 
cent spiritually as they are at present potent so- 
cially. As Clarence Birdseye points out in his book, 
" Individual Training in Our Colleges," and more 
specifically in his address before the convention of 



202 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

the Religious Education Association at Washington, 
the rapid development of fraternity life, the immense 
resources and equipment, the nearness of the fra- 
ternity to student life, and the fact that, in a large 
measure, they seem to be so closely and almost 
officially identified with university life, makes it 
worth while to ask whether they cannot be guided 
for the highest good. 

One other consideration emerges : though the uni- 
versity may be unable to institute formal religious 
instruction, it nevertheless has a clear imperative to 
provide a high moral local atmosphere and environ- 
ment; it lies usually within its power to determine 
the life of the village or city in which it is situated 
and to set about the university every physical and 
moral stimulus of the higher life and to remove 
every deterrent. 

That which really counts in the characters of the 

men at the university is the life of the institution 

as a whole. The university consti- 

Institutional Life , , ., ., , ,.r r 

tutes a community; it has a life of 
its own; it will express the religious life of its 
members according to that community life. The 
churches of the village or city in which the uni- 
versity stands must not be surprised if students 
are slow or seem unwilling to project themselves 
into the life of these churches ; they belong to 
another order of life, another community just then. 
They are most likely to come into the life of the 
churches as there are opportunities afforded for 



TRAINING MEN IN THE COLLEGES 203 

them to engage in service which would be natural for 
them, spontaneously in harmony with their student 
life. But the deepest need is the development of a 
strong, personal, religious spirit in the university 
community itself, so that this which is so clear and 
almost personal a thing, this life of associations and 
ideals may be spiritually potential, may be felt as a 
part of a man's higher life. We need to personalize 
the life of university and college, and to do this, 
most of all, by keeping steadily before all the high 
spiritual purposes of a true education, not learning 
for learning's sake, but for the sake of life, and life 
itself for the sake of its service. 



CHAPTER XIV 

SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 

One would be blind to the most hopeful facts of our 
modern life who should omit the social settlement 
movement from a survey of the agencies effective 
in the religious training of adult men. But there is 
a serious difficulty in so much as introducing these 
agencies, because any adequate treatment would 
demand a special inquiry of too great magnitude 
for a chapter in a book, while any consideration 
within the compass of this present inquiry is com- 
pelled to follow lines which are supposed to be 
already fairly generally emphasized. There is this 
important consideration, however: we are studying 
the religious training of men, and this is something 
which many settlement workers hasten to assert is 
foreign to their program, while nearly all are 
agreed in regarding it as purely incidental and to be 
avoided as a direct and avowed object of endeavor. 
Yet, the settlements are to be counted as one of 
the most valuable religious agencies of our time. 
Dr. Charles R. Henderson adopts the definition 
of a settlement given by Miss Ada S. Woolfolk: 
" Homes in the poorer quarters of a city where edu- 
cated men and women may live in daily personal 
204 



SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 205 

contact with the working people. Here they may 
identify themselves as citizens with all the public 
interests of their neighbors . . . and share with them, 
in the spirit of friendship, the fruit and inspiration 
of their wider opportunities." ^ 

But Graham Taylor, of the " Chicago Commons," 
gives a simpler but more exactly limited state- 
ment : '' Group of Christian people who choose to 
live where they seem most needed, for the purpose 
of being all they can to the people with whom they 
identify themselves, and for all those interests they 
will do what they can." ^ 

William I. Cole, of the South End House, Boston, 
argues in the pamphlet last quoted that there may 
be settlements without " residence." At all events 
a social settlement is usually the co-operative liv- 
ing of a group of persons in a neighborly attitude 
and purpose. It means voluntary neighborliness to 
the needy in order to be able to render service to 
the measure of your ability and according to the 
extent of their need. Yet the formal act of charity, 
and the attitude either of " serving " or of the 
" Lady Bountiful," is far from the settlement spirit. 
Men and women simply live with folk and work out 
life with them. 

There are at least one hundred important and 
fairly well-established settlements in the United 



1 Quoted in " Social Settlements," by C. R. Henderson. 

2 Quoted in " Motives and Results of the Social Settlement Move- 
ment," pamphlet. Harvard University, 1908. 



206 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

States; they are found in twenty-eight States and 
in Washington, D. C. New York has nineteen; 
Chicago the same number ; Boston, eighteen ; Phila- 
delphia, seven. In Europe there are about twenty- 
seven well-known settlements ; London has thirteen. 

Social settlements began in co-operation with re- 
ligious agencies; Arnold Toynbee and Edward 
Denison in St. Judes, Whitechapel 

^^"RSror""* and St. Philips, Stepney. The 
writer remembers often hearing the 
work of Toynbee Hall referred to by its neighbors 
as though it were that of St. Judes. To-day set- 
tlements are seldom found in organic relations with 
churches, while many workers disavow any church 
affiliations. It is not uncommonly felt that the set- 
tlement must be unfettered by any ecclesiastical body 
just as its residents seek to leave the religious prac- 
tices and opinions of their neighbors without en- 
deavoring to influence them directly in any degree. 
There are a few settlements distinctly related to 
organized religious institutions to-day, but, speaking 
generally, they are not doing work on so broad a 
scale as those which are quite free. In a few settle- 
ments formal religious activities, such as Bible 
classes, prayer meetings, and preaching, have a 
place ; but they seldom are prominent. In what way, 
then, do social settlements contribute to the religious 
training of men? 

The answer lies in the interpretation of religion, 
for which we are largely indebted to the social 



SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 207 

agencies of our day, religion as the life of higher 
values. Social settlements stimulate the desire to 
discover the true values of life ; they waken men to 
the vision of higher values; they direct in activities 
that lead to the realization and possession of values 
seen and to visions of yet higher possibilities. The 
truth is that many settlement workers are religious 
without knowing it; they are giving their whole 
lives in the high spiritual endeavor to lead men into 
the way of the free and full life. Social settle- 
ments are agencies of religious education because 
they make possible the development of the lives of 
residents through sympathy and service, and the 
lives of those with whom they live through instruc- 
tion, direction, and co-operation. 

It is sufficient simply to suggest that social settle- 
ments, if they had failed altogether of their direct 
purposes, would have been worth 
while for the enlarging of humani- f '"^^'^atfJS 
tarian feeling, of social understand- 
ing, the breaking down of caste barriers, and the 
stimulation to active self-giving in service which 
they have afforded to the thousands who have lived 
and worked in them. The men who led in them, 
such men as Toynbee, Alden, Denison, and Taylor 
have become what they have been and are by the 
educative agency of the service on which they 
entered in the settlements. Would that it belonged 
to us here to speak of the women, Addams, Mc- 
Dowell, and many others. 



208 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

In two directions settlements contribute to the 

religious training of the adult men in their fields : by 

instruction, and by direction of or 

Settlement stimulation to activities, i. By in- 
Instruction , / 

truction. Here are some of the 
instructional opportunities for adult men; lectures 
on subjects political, economic, social, and ethical, 
including frequently Sunday afternoon lectures on 
religions and religious topics; university exten- 
sion and other courses of study, in art, social history, 
literature, ethics, religious sacred literature; cor- 
respondence courses in like subjects; groups and 
classes in the same subjects; discussion groups, in- 
cluding open forums, conferences, and debates; 
readings designed for those too weary to apply 
themselves to study ; " Household " daily or oc- 
casional worship, to which the neighbors are in- 
vited; reading under direction and by circulation 
of carefully chosen books. 

Simply packing information into men will not 
make their lives larger, richer, or more efficient. 
But instruction given because men are hungry for it, 
under the auspices of institutions established solely 
to co-operate with men — to do things with them, 
not for them — will be far in advance of any me- 
chanical process of warehousing facts and informa- 
tion. The classes, studies, and instructional activ- 
ities in the settlements are calling out the powers of 
men, they are opening avenues and vistas into the 
broader world; they are leading men to look over 



SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 209 

walls of prejudice, to climb the surrounding hills of 
provincialism ; they stimulate to a passion for a bet- 
ter home, a better city, a fairer world ; they awaken 
noble aspirations and reveal ascending ideals. 
Whatever does this makes life larger, richer, and 
more efficient; and whatever does that is doing the 
work of religious education in some degree. 

The largest values of social settlement, so far 
as the adult man is concerned, are seen in the ac- 
tivities into which they are led, the 
greater value being due to the fa- 
miliar principle of the importance of expressional 
activities in education. Some of these activities are : 
Labor bureaus, visitation of sick, social occasions, 
assisting in lectures and classes, teaching the things 
that each man may know, political service, reforms, 
co-operation with relief and charity organizations, 
special organizations to aid the distressed ; collecting 
data on social and economic conditions ; securing 
improvements as in streets, cars, shops, homes, and 
also securing such important city social and helpful 
factors as the small parks and playgrounds. 

An important chapter in the story of the contribu- 
tion of the social settlements to the character train- 
ing of men lies at present buried 
in the reports of the Park Commis- P^^'^'' ^^ Schools 
sioners of Chicago. The many small neighborhood 
parks, squares, and especially the highly valuable 
playgrounds, have been added to the splendid park 
system of the city almost wholly under the impetus 



2IO THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

of appeals and pressure by the men and women 
who have come under the influence of the settle- 
ment. Besides affording open breathing spots and 
concrete examples of esthetic and social endeavor 
the playgrounds, under the supervision of the di- 
rector, Mr. E. B. De Groot, are really schools for 
the children and youth. Their indoor and outdoor 
gymnasia, reading-rooms, libraries, and social fea- 
tures, are all under expert supervision. The total 
registration for the indoor gymnasiums during 1907 
was fifteen thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
four, and during the next three months, eleven thou- 
sand eight hundred and nineteen ; nearly three thou- 
sand of these were males over sixteen years of age. 
In all the gymnasiums contests are conducted, and 
all players and patrons of the opportunities are 
under definite rules of eligibility and conduct; the 
play is steadily guided by competent instructors. 
When one thinks of the value of such opportunities 
of play, under such direction, and realizes that this 
has been made possible in no small measure by the 
united efforts of the people of the settlement neigh- 
borhoods, a strong note of optimism is justified in 
regard to the future of our cities. 

Now, when you know the types of citizens with 

which the settlement works, and think of the 

many thousands of Jews, Slavs, 

mmigraion Italians, and others thrown into 

the great melting pot of our cities, see them 

bringing their race prejudices, their undisciplined 



SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 211 

passions, their social inefficiency, and their un- 
tutored minds into the Hfe of the settlement, 
there gradually awakening to social consciousness, 
to a sense of human solidarity, to esteem for other 
peoples, to a grasp upon themselves and on life, to 
civic ideals, and to actual service — sacrificing without 
sentiment or shouting — you cannot fail to recognize 
that here men, in the raw and the rough, are being 
trained religiously, and whenever we are appalled at 
the problem of immigration, which is simply the 
problem of large accessions of untrained men, we 
can remember and seek to encourage the social 
settlement which, whatever its limitations, is actu- 
ally leading many of these men into larger living. 

It must not be imagined from what has been 
said that there is, or should be, antagonism between 
the churches and the settlements. Just as the latter 
have really grown out of the former, so there are 
instances, as " The Church of the Son of Man " in 
New York, where the social institution has given 
birth to the reHgious organization. What is needed 
is that each should recognize fully and freely the 
religious values in the work of the other. 



CHAPTER XV 

LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 

There are in the United States and Canada thirty- 
five secret fraternal organizations, each having a 
membership of over twenty-five thousand adult men, 
and admitting only adult men to membership. The 
number of members in these thirty-five secret so- 
cieties is over nine millions, while in the smaller 
organizations there are nearly half a million more 
men. Taking all such societies together, and in- 
cluding those which admit women to membership, 
the total enrolment in North America in 1907 was 
ten million one hundred and four thousand five 
hundred and sixty-one. Of this membership, less 
than seven hundred and twenty-five thousand were 
women, so that over ninety-two per cent, of the 
members of such fraternal organizations as Free 
Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Wood- 
men, etc., are men ; and since none of these agencies 
admit members under age, while by far the greater 
number are initiated after they have passed their 
twenty-fifth year, we have here a group of organiza- 
tions quite similar in character one to another 
enrolling over nine million adults in North 
America. 
212 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 213 

The influence and possibilities of the lodges for 
the moral training of men is suggested by the fact 
that such organizations usually hold 
at least one meeting a week, lasting ^^^ 
from two to three hours. The man who belongs to 
both lodge and church, though he may attend the 
former only once a week, will spend more time 
there than in his church. Careful observation and 
inquiry also indicate that forty per cent, of the mem- 
bers of the secret organizations attend the lodge 
meetings with fair regularity, while there are many 
occasions on which practically every member of 
the lodge will be present. Taking the average at- 
tendance, however, and exhibiting this only for the 
sake of gaining some conception of the place of 
the lodge in the life of adult men, allowing for all 
kinds of lodge gatherings, it is not too much to say 
that every week four million men spend two hours 
and upward in the lodge rooms in North America. 
That time is the equivalent of one million working 
days. Again, a comparison may be made with the 
number of men attending church services, and the 
time spent therein. 

The estimates here given are based, first, on in- 
quiries extending over a number of years and, sec- 
ondly, on the personal observation 
of over five hundred churches in the ^^f ^^ ^^"'^^ 

Attendance 

city of Chicago. There are in the 

United States, according to figures compiled by 

Dr. H. K. Carroll in 1906, thirty-two million two 



214 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

hundred and eighty-three thousand six hundred and 
fifty-eight communicants in the Christian churches 
of all creeds. If we proceed to ask how many adult 
men there are in these thirty-two million members, 
we are met by the difficulty that no church has yet 
dared to publish exact facts as to the proportion 
of males in its membership. Let any pastor go 
through his membership roll, and see if he has 
twenty-five per cent, of adult males therein. Ten 
per cent, will be found to be a large proportion for 
the average church. There are many churches with 
fewer adult men than this. There are few churches 
with over twenty per cent, in their membership, and 
only in congregations noted for their masculinity 
will a larger proportion of men be discovered than 
this. Counts made of many congregations, and 
close observation, lead to the conclusion that an esti- 
mate of twenty per cent, of adult males in the total 
church-membership in the United States would be a 
very liberal estimate. If this is correct, then there 
are in the churches of the United States about six 
and one-half millions of men, while there are in 
the lodges of the United States and Canada over 
nine million men. If we now come to the study of 
church attendance and lodge attendance in any 
single city, or division of a city, we shall find facts 
more reliable and at least equally interesting. Here 
are some facts from a small city: taking the mem- 
bership of all the churches (six in number) as the 
unit for comparison, and calling this one hundred, 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 21 5 

the adult male membership was fifteen per cent, of 
the whole ; the average attendance of adult males in 
the church services was nine per cent. The male 
members in the lodges (six in number) of the city 
was one hundred and forty-eight per cent.; the 
average atendance upon lodge meetings would be 
forty-one per cent. Perhaps this instance is hardly 
typical; yet these proportions will be equaled or 
surpassed in many other communities while, if we 
take into consideration the fact that the meetings 
of the lodges are much longer than those of the 
churches, it will be seen that the lodge, in at least 
many places, plays a very much larger part in the 
life of the adult man than does the church. 

The importance of the lodge in the religious and 
moral training of the adult man is due next to the 
fact that nearly all the lodges are 
historically supposed to be founded ^*^^^T^* 
upon high moral, or ethical, or even 
religious ideals, or upon historical episodes of moral 
and religious significance, as for instance, the Free 
Masons, on the building of King Solomon's temple, 
and on other incidents in Old Testament history; 
the Knights of Pythias, on the story of Damon and 
Pythias ; the Knights Templar, on the Crusades, etc. 
In the formal liturgies, ritual, and other work, read, 
recited, or sung in these lodges, the highest religious 
ideals are inculcated, and moral duty is constantly 
taught. Men are required, in every one of these 
lodges, to take vows and obligations which point 



2l6 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

them to high standards of character, and to the per- 
formance of ethical and social duties one to another. 
Nearly all of these lodges have certain parts of their 
ritual which are permitted to become public prop- 
erty. They contain prayers, hymns, charges, ex- 
hortations, and lectures which are usually selected 
for publication, not because they are the best mor- 
ally or the most religious in tone, but because they 
reveal none of the secrets of the lodges. Some of 
these prayers are said at every lodge meeting, and 
though they may become by such constant usage 
perfunctory, and may lose significance, this would 
not be any more true of these prayers than with 
any others used thus frequently. As for example, 
we may quote from " The Charges of a Free Ma- 
son": 1 

I. Concerning God and Religion. A Mason is obliged, 
by his tenure to obey the moral law; and if he rightly 
understands the art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor 
an irreligious libertine. But though in ancient times Ma- 
sons were charged in every country to be of the religion 
of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet 'tis now 
thought more expedient only to oblige them to that re- 
ligion in which all men agree, leaving their particular 
opinions to themselves; that is, to be good men and true, 
or men of honor and honesty, by whatever denominations 
or persuasions they may be distinguished; whereby Ma- 
sonry becomes the center of union, and the means of con- 
ciliating true friendship among persons that must h^ve 
remained at a perpetual distance. 

1 William Hunter, London, 1723. 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 21/ 

The following is the brief official statement as to 
the aims and ideals of the order known as the 
Knights of Pythias: 

The Order of Knights of Pythias, founded in Friend- 
ship, Charity, and Benevolence, which it proclaims as its 
cardinal principles, strives to gather into one mighty fra- 
ternity worthy men who appreciate the true meaning of 
friendship; who are cautious in word and act; Who love 
truth; whose honor is untarnished; whose sense of justice 
will prevent, to the best of their ability, a personal act or 
word injurious to the worthy; whose loyalty to principle, to 
family, to friends, to their country, and to the constituted 
authority under which they enjoy citizenship, is undoubted, 
and who at all times are prepared to do unto others as 
they would that others should do unto them. 

The qualifications for membership in this order 
are given in an official circular issued by the " Grand 
Chancellor of Michigan," in 1906: 

An applicant for the ranks of knighthood must possess 
the following qualifications : 

I. He must be a white male. 2. He must be of good 
moral character. 3. He must be not less than twenty-one, 
and not more than fifty years of age, except that a person 
more than fifty years of age may become eligible by dis- 
pensation. 4. He must be a believer in a Supreme Being. 
5. He must be in good health and sound in mind and body, 
except that a maimed person may become eligible by dis- 
pensation. 6. He must be able to read and write. 7. He 
must not be engaged in either of the occupations known 
as professional gambler, saloonkeeper, bartender, or retail 
dealer in spirituous liquors, ale, wine, or beer (except as a 
bona fide hotelkeeper or druggist). 8. He must believe 



2l8 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

in the maintenance of order and the upholding of consti- 
tuted authority in the government in which he Hves. 9. 
He must not have been rejected by any subordinate lodge 
as an applicant for the ranks of knighthood within the 
six months preceding his application. 

Leaders in the fraternal orders are conscious of 
the element of weakness and the dangers therein; 
they are frequently also conscious of the great moral 
and religious possibilities for the training of the 
men in these orders. For example, the Most 
Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of 
Illinois, A. F. & A. M., Thomas T. Turner, in 
the proceedings of that lodge for 1864, 1865, is 
reported as saying: 

Masonry must exist in the heart and conscience, or it 
does not exist at all. It is not the teaching, but the thing 
taught, that makes the Mason. If the rites and cere- 
monies through which he is made to pass do not make him 
a better man — if they do not increase his reverence for 
and reliance upon Almighty God — if they do not lead him 
to obey and practise the divine and moral precepts con- 
tained in the Holy Bible, which is the great light in 
Masonry — if they do not make him a better husband, father, 
friend, and citizen — then he is not a Freemason, although 
like the counterfeit coin, he may pass for a while as 
genuine. Freemasonry is valuable only so far as it is pro- 
ductive of good results, so far as it exercises a salutary 
influence upon the mind and conduct, and becomes incor- 
porated into the rules of our daily life. When we all 
realize what Freemasonry is, and live up to our obliga- 
tions, we shall feel no alarm at any increase in our num- 
bers; but, if we lose sight of the ancient landmarks and 
permit unsound or worthless material to be worked into 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 219 

our building, it will assuredly fall to pieces, no matter 
how good the foundation may have been. How is it with 
us, my brethren? Do we love money and influence and 
fame more than we love justice, mercy, and truth? Do we 
blaspheme the name of the Most High, or do we give 
thanks for his mercies? Do we visit the gambling house 
more than the church of God ? Do we love the intoxicating 
bowl more than we love temperance and virtue? Let every 
Mason recall his obligations and the solemn ceremonies 
through which he has passed, and then answer these ques- 
tions to his own heart and conscience. 

In an address delivered in 1907, a prominent 
member of several fraternities said : 

The lodges will remain fifty years behind the times 
until their five million lodge men harness their great and 
powerful organizations with the agencies of education 
and the agencies of religion for the purpose of waging one 
common unceasing warfare against law-breaking, against 
jealousy, against prejudice, against ignorance, the four 
greatest foes of religion and education and fraternity. 

If we may take these examples of the moral and 
religious teachings of the lodges as typical, and cer- 
tainly we may fairly do so in every 

, J . J J.1 Religious Ideals 

mstance, we can understand there 
is some good reason for the statement one hears 
occasionally from members of lodges, " My lodge is 
all the church I need," or " Any man who lives up to 
the teachings of his lodge will be a good Christian." 
The lodges, generally speaking, make no insistence 
upon the doctrines which have divided religious 
people. It is true there are some orders which are 



220 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

divided upon certain doctrines, while still others de- 
mand of their adherents intellectual assent to doc- 
trines, but all, without exception, not only disavow 
but strenuously object to the introduction of any 
form of sectarian teaching. There are some teach- 
ings, however, upon which all are agreed, and which 
all demand with more or less emphasis. For in- 
stance, they teach faith in immortality and the fu- 
ture life; reverence for the Deity, the Bible as a 
guide in faith and practice (some of the orders) ; 
the duties of relieving suffering, ministering to the 
sick, and generally caring for their fellows, with re- 
sponsibility for the conduct and character of mem- 
bers, truth, sobriety, and personal rectitude in liv- 
ing, duties of citizenship. 

These teachings are crystallized in certain phrases 
and formulas, in catchwords and mottoes, as " fra- 
ternity," "love," "purity," "truth," and these 
concise expressions of ideals are kept before the 
eyes of attendants upon lodges in the form of sym- 
bols and illuminated mottoes, and before their ears 
in various phrases, such as passwords. 

But the teaching of the lodges has, by way of 
augmenting its power over men, unconsciously 
adopted one of the best pedagogical expedients. 
The ideals, vows, and conceptions of virtue which 
are held before the members are expressed not only 
in words, but through rituals, symbols, pictures, 
and dramatic representation. Men in the lodges, 
especially in some which are highly organized, get 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 221 

a little of the sermon in church, a little of the 
liturgy, a little of the music, a little of the picture 
gallery, a little of the art of the theater and, what 
means perhaps most of all, some opportunity to have 
some part in all these things themselves. 

It is not our purpose to make any special plea 
for the lodges as religious agencies, and still less 
as institutions which render the 

It n t, i. 1 J. Interest for Men 

church superfluous, but only to 
show the reasons why they have an influence in the 
moral and religious training of men, and how they 
seem to meet the religious needs of large numbers 
of men. A man who would go to sleep under the 
most eloquent oration on brotherly love would stay 
wide-awake and follow with vivid interest the pic- 
torial and dramatic presentation of the scene on the 
road from Jerusalem to Jericho, where the good 
Samaritan finds his great opportunity. The exhibi- 
tion of the parable makes an impression for good 
deeper than its exposition could do, especially if the 
man himself has a share in the action of the parable 
and, at least theoretically, ought to result in the 
greater likelihood that the man would himself do 
likewise when occasion offered. 

The atmosphere of secrecy, of mystery, with 
the halo of hoary traditions, adds not a little 
to the impressiveness and value 
of the lessons taught in many ^^^y f<>' ^en 
lodges. Without doubt there is a great deal of 
child's play about the pageants, mimicry, and mum- 



222 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

mery of many lodge rituals; but that very child's 
play meets a real need in the nature of man. He 
has to play. He must idealize things. He must 
idealize himself. It is not an evil thing for a man 
to put on a knight's armor if it will in any way 
help him to the knight's ideal. It may be a good 
thing for him for a while to come out of his sordid 
world and play in the little world idealized by the 
flight of time. If he is a St. George, piercing the 
dragon, even though he knows the dragon is only 
papier-mache, it were better he should feel the im- 
pulse to strike him down than that he should sit 
complacently in church or home while he hears or 
reads, without thought of duty resting upon him, 
of the depredations of the dragon of greed and 
vice in modern society. The lodge has solved very 
largely, though clearly unintentionally, one of the 
problems in religious pedagogy, that of appealing to 
the dramatic play instinct. 

Flowers grow best in a garden; birds among 
birds; babes in the kindergarten, men among men. 
The lodge furnishes the atmosphere 
asc imty ^^ bracing virility ; it is of men and 
for men. No part of its ritual, none of its arrange- 
ments or activities needs to be changed to suit the 
*' eternal feminine." Of course, men find their moral 
growth as they mingle both among men and women. 
No man ever could be a fully developed man without 
the atmosphere of womankind, and the restraints 
and graces thus put upon him. But just as in 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 223 

a very imperfect way the woman's club and the 
woman's sewing society meet the deep psychological 
need in the nature of woman so does the lodge meet 
an equally real and imperative need in the interest 
of men. Given a body of men bound together by 
ties of ideal obligations, having before them high 
moral and ethical standards, the manhood of all 
commonly operates to the greater manhood of each. 
The masculinity of the lodge is one of its strong at- 
tractions as well as one of its great potencies for 
good or, if it turn to ill, for ill. 

The barest familiarity with the lodges must in- 
form any inquirer of certain features necessarily 
both attractive and helpful to men. 
These are really the expressional 
activities of the lodges. In every regular lodge 
meeting of practically all the great orders, inquiry 
is made as to whether there are any who are sick, 
in need of assistance, or to whom brotherly aid may 
be in any way rendered. (This would not be a bad 
practice to institute in the churches, say at prayer 
meeting.) It is usually made the duty of members 
of the lodge to call regularly on each brother who 
is sick.2 In all organized lodges the matter of the 
personal care for the sick and the needy is most 

"Sick Committee. 
* "Sbc. 3. The Sick Committee shall consist of five (5) members of this 
lodge, with such additional members as the Lodge may find it necessary 
to appoint, in case of prevalent diseases or increase of membership. It shall 
be the duty of each of the committee to visit every brother reported sick, as 
soon thereafter as may be practicable, and continue to do so once in each week 
during his illness; should the services of the brethren be required to watch 
with a sick brother, the committee may detail the members ; if the disease be 



224 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

carefully regulated and conducted. Large sums of 
money are expended to this end. The Grand Lodge 
of Masons in Illinois in their report under date of 
October i, 1907, shows thirty-five thousand seven 
hundred and twenty-five dollars directly disbursed 
in charities and reliefs, and over twelve thousand 
dollars invested for the support of homes for or- 
phans and the aged, the amounts being the disburse- 
ments of the Grand Lodge from its funds, while the 
reports from the nearly nine hundred lodges of the 
State show contributions to members, their widows, 
and orphans, in amounts ranging from five dollars 
to one thousand dollars, from each lodge and con- 
tributions to those not members from one hundred 
and sixty-eight of these lodges in amounts running 
as high as five hundred and seventy-six dollars. It 
is worth while to note that there are this number of 
lodges contributing every year to those outside of 
their membership. This practical work of charity 
and relief in which men of the lodges not only have 
a share by voting the money, but also by visitation 
and oversight accompanied by opportunities of do- 
ing things in the lodges, holding office, having a 
part in the ritual observations meets the need of 
men for expressional activities and ministers to 
their development. 

One seldom hears to-day the fervid denunciation 

of a dangerous or contagious nature, or if, from any other cause, great diffi* 
culty arises in procuring the attendance of watchers, the committee shall 
provide some suitable person as a nurse, at the expense of the Lodge." By- 
Laws of a Chicago Lodge, A. F. & A. M. 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 225 

of secret societies which made their appeal to the 
popular prejudices in past generations. Only here 
and there are men spending time 
describing the atrocities of or- |he*Ltd^^ 
ganizations which they can know 
only from the outside, a position which leaves the 
imagination untrammeled by fact, and so able to 
exercise itself more freely illustrating the infernal 
origin of fraternal organizations. The most fre- 
quent criticism against the lodge is that it draws 
men away from the churches, and that it joins 
men together by artificial ties of vows into classes 
for mutual support instead of bringing them to a 
realization of the broader human brotherhood. The 
day has past when it is any longer necessary to 
question the morality of the lodges on the ground 
of secret practices of immoral character. We rarely 
see any sane persons who seriously imagine that the 
lodges are secret organizations of persons banded 
together to destroy religious institutions or the so- 
cial organization. It Is recognized that the secret 
features are not secret simply because men dare not 
allow them to be known; they are secret because 
such secrecy enhances their value, their impressive- 
ness, and is essential to the separation and distinction 
of those who have been initiated from those who 
have not. 

The criticism that the lodge takes men from the 
church and therefore is an evil thing, is not valid 
unless we can prove that the lodge Is an evil thing, 
p 



226 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

If the Rev. Al^r. A. finds that the Rev. Mr. B. gives 
men what they need, much as he might desire 
to do so, he is not able to prove to the logical mind 
that Mr. B.'s church is an evil thing. The church 
to-day is in competition with every other agency 
that touches the lives of men. It can no longer com- 
pel attendance, it must quickly learn that it cannot 
win attendance by baits or bribes, that it can survive 
in this world only as it serves its purpose better than 
any other organization can serve that purpose. Its 
relation to the lodges can be settled, not by denunci- 
ation, but by furnishing to men as it may and 
should, the higher spiritual values, that bread of 
life for which the heart of men is ever hungry. 

The great weakness of the lodge is that it is not 
a social organization. In a measure it is an anti- 
social organization. Not that it has 
weakn^ot ^j^y propaganda deliberately under- 
mining social institutions or social 
ideals, but that it is an organization into which only 
a small number of men can enter, and which, on 
that account, tends to create caste lines and di- 
visions. 

It draws itself apart from the world. The su- 
periority of the church to the lodge lies in the fact 
that the true church is a social organization. It is 
not only in the world as part of the world in the 
sense of belonging to its service, but it throws wide 
open its doors and invites all men without dis- 
tinction of class or condition to its fellowship. The 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 22/ 

lodge has the ethical message and mission for the 
few who voluntarily associate themselves with it, 
and who are, by its unanimous voice, elected to its 
fellowship. The church has its spiritual message 
and dynamic for all. It is not exclusively demo- 
cratic. It is not self-centered. It is missionary. It 
is not for itself, it is for service. 

A new note, however, has come into fraternities 
with a sound similar to that which will lead the 
churches into larger life, the note of social service. 
Men in the lodges are coming to see the significance 
of their teachings and the ritual for their own lives, 
and under the impulse of these ideals, seeing the 
present social conditions, to feel the responsibilities 
for the city and the nation, and to urge upon their 
fellows in the lodges that fraternity must be wider 
than the craft, that the good Samaritan picks up 
the man who cannot give him his own password. 

At the recent Rochester Convention of the Re- 
ligious Education Association, a new department, 
entitled, " Fraternal and Social Service," was cre- 
ated in order to bring together all those individuals 
and organizations desirous of promoting the pur- 
poses of the Association through fraternal and so- 
cial institutions.^ All fraternal and social workers 
are given, in this department, an opportunity to 
co-operate in extending moral and fraternal edu- 
cation. This department should bring together 

' See chapter on the " Lodges," in " The Masculine in Religion," 
by C. D. Case. 



228 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

those persons engaged in educational work in fra- 
ternal organizations, social settlements, playground 
leagues, boys' clubs, and kindred organizations. It 
should be of service especially to those who are 
promoting the present significant movement for 
fraternal education. 

No man concerned for the spiritual development 
of men can afford to be blind to the significance of 
the fact that so many millions of men meet in the 
lodges, appear to enjoy the opportunities of these 
meetings, both in city and in country, are willing to 
make many sacrifices for their lodges, and that these 
men, after all, are, to say the least, not of the 
least desirable of our citizens. We cannot afford 
to neglect any agency that is in any way effecting 
the development of the lives of men. The lodge 
may not be so worthy as the church; it fails at 
many points without doubt, but there are points at 
which it has without doubt succeeded. 

We should be willing to learn from every agency 
that works with men, from every spontaneous as- 
sociation of men, discovering those plans which best 
meet the needs of men, those which are most faith- 
fully based on their natures and possibilities and 
those which minister most largely to the develop- 
ment of men as social, spiritual beings. 

We can afford to neglect none of the agencies, 
instrumentalities, or associations of a man's life. 
He who is concerned for the welfare of men will 
study the clubs, trades unions, social groups, such 



LODGES AND FRATERNITIES 229 

organizations as the Turners, athletic, and sporting 
associations, all that grows out of the lives of as- 
sociated men, and from all learn the ways of men. 

Men will be led into the ways of God according 
to the ways of men, not according to the habits of 
angels, nor the customs of women, but just by fol- 
lowing the natural ways of a man's life, by meeting 
his real needs, discovering his immediate interests, 
affording opportunity for his best life to express 
itself in service, in worthy activities, holding before 
him the ideal of the full life, the life that has in- 
spired so many great and worthy lives, helping him 
to see the King in all his beauty, and to come 
through atmosphere, environment, stimulus, exer- 
cise, and aspiration to the measure of the fulness of 
the stature of Christ. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE STRATEGIC MOMENT FOR THE CHURCHES 

This is the hour of opportunity for the churches; 
it is high noon of the day of awakened interest in 
rehgion, the hour when the men of the world are 
looking to the forces of religion to take leadership 
in the great affairs of the world. Despite our ac- 
knowledged tendencies and temptations to crass 
materialism, we know that greater than railroads and 
crops, greater than armies and navies, greater than 
all the '' interests " are the great human interests, 
human rights and duties, the ultimate purpose of all 
civilization, the development of free personality, 
the crown of character. 

The modem layman cares little about saving re- 
ligion or saving religious institutions as such; he is 
concerned as to how the forces of life may serve 
religion and minister to spiritual ends. He knows 
that no matter how successfully we may manu- 
facture goods, may acquire dominion over lands, 
and dominate the air and sea, unless in all our get- 
ting we get the wisdom of right living, unless in all 
our enriching we are enriched at heart, unless we 
gain spiritual personality, we are in danger of hear- 
ing the voice at the midnight hour, " Thou fool, this 
230 



THE STRATEGIC MOMENT 23 1 

night thy soul is required of thee." Men answer 
quickly to the call that they should not live for 
barns alone, nor for bread alone. 

This is the hour of opportunity, because men are 
looking out on the many, varied, sometimes compe- 
ting and conflicting agencies for the higher life, and 
asking in what manner all these may be brought 
together, duplications eliminated, and economy of 
effort with efficiency be secured. The world seeks 
a nucleating center for its spiritual work, that at 
which college, Y. M. C. A., settlement, church, and 
school may come together. Men are feeling after 
what might be termed the organization of a uni- 
versal corporation for character. A well-known 
business man has suggested that the time has come 
to organize all industry and commerce into one 
gigantic corporation, in which every man may hold 
stock. Surely the time has come when all the 
forces of good must organize for future efficiency. 
In the work of the kingdom we have no right to 
waste energy by competition or duplication. The 
splendid opportunity of the church lies in this vision 
dawning before the modern man, in this program 
for the laymen of the future ; lies in the fact that a 
corporation for spiritual service must have a soul, 
a center from which the life-giving currents flow, 
from which the forces that nerve brain and heart 
are distributed. The church must be that soul. 

The thought of a unified, co-ordinated organiza- 
tion for spiritual ends ; for the kingdom, as a new 



232 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

spiritual corporation, must not be pressed too closely. 
It does not involve formal organization, still less 
the capitalization in cash with issuance of stock; 
too many might take the stock certificates for tickets 
of admission to glory. But it does mean that which 
is the essential conception of combination and cor- 
porations, the organization of individuals, and the 
co-ordination of institutions to accomplish specific 
ends. The great need is that we shall bring together 
all the persons who set the higher life of man first, 
before things and material aims, that we shall bring 
together the agencies and institutions serving ideal, 
spiritual ends and seeking the kingdom, and that 
we shall understand the field of each, discover its 
appropriate duties, and work out the relations of 
each one to all the others, so as to secure economy 
of energy in operation, efficiency in service, and the 
thorough covering of all the field. Pastors and 
other leaders must take time to sit down and study 
the fields, the possibilities, the duties of all agencies 
in their communities, must seek to work out plans 
of co-ordination, of united activity in all these or- 
ganizations. Frequent conferences ought to be held 
to which would come all the leaders in every kind 
of agency for the higher life in 3^our community. 
It ought to be possible to determine fields and to 
secure agreements on activities and means of co- 
operation. That would mean a great advance to- 
ward efficient agencies for efficient men. 

The strategic opportunity of the church is re- 



THE STRATEGIC MOMENT 233 

vealed in the answer she must make to men who, 
trained for service in the kingdom, now ask : " Is 
the church the agency through which I am to apply 
my trained powers to the task of social service?" 
Here is the layman, trained by church and school 
and other active agencies to some degree of ef- 
ficiency in the work of a Christian man, to the work 
of bringing the kingdom to come and the will of 
the Most High to be done. He now, in view of 
the many possible avenues of service and the many 
groups of servants, asks whether if, for instance, 
he would serve in making the streets of the city 
clean, morally helpful to boys and girls, if he would 
remove vile billboards, educators in vice, shall he 
seek to work through the church or through some 
other organization? The layman who has been 
trained will want to serve. If he does not, his train- 
ing has been a detriment instead of a development. 
But where shall he serve? Shall the church say to 
him, If you put your energies into the Y. M. C. A. 
you are taking them from me; or, If you spend 
your evenings at the settlement you are robbing 
me? Too often we have spoken thus; we have 
demanded that men shall give all their service to 
this institution, forgetting that the institution is 
itself a servant, here not to be ministered unto, but 
.to minister. 

The answer the church must make to the man 
who seeks avenues for the expression of his trained 
powers will be the answer of her Master, " I am the 



234 THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

light of the world; ye are the light of the world." 
Again, " I am among you as one that serveth." 
The function of the church in society is not that of 
a machine built to clean the alleys, wash the city, 
or purge the Augean stables of modern " practical " 
politics ; the church is not a machine, but a prophet. 
The church, facing social conditions, exists not so 
much to do things as to cause things to be done. 
Her people will do things directly, practically; but 
her organic function will be, in society, as its con- 
science, its prophetic voice, its stimulus and in- 
spiration. 

Given our trained men, the great work of the 
church with them will be to furnish them with a 
sufficient motive for service in the world. In any 
factory the element of power is the prime factor 
in efficiency. For service for the world a man's 
greatest need is a sufficient dynamic motive. With- 
out a sustaining motive, without a compelling vision 
of what is to be done, without an imperative passion 
for the work and for men the layman who seeks 
to serve the kingdom is only playing with tricks and 
devices of ecclesiastical or sociological apparatus. 
It is easy to lay too much emphasis on the tricks 
and devices, the technical and manual methods, and 
to lose sight of the essential requisite, a sufficient 
motive for service. The layman, in order to be 
really efficient, needs the sufficiency of a soul set 
afire with a noble, consuming passion. The church 
to-day must interpret life's present opportunities in 



THE STRATEGIC MOMENT 235 

ideal terms ; it must say to the modern, trained man, 
this splendid, complex life of yours and all your re- 
sources and your specially trained powers are not, 
as some would tell you, that you may gain personal 
advantage, but that you may render larger, finer 
service. Men must see their professional and tech- 
nical training not as the chance to get a " cinch " 
on the social situation, but as a chance to give the 
world finer ministry, to come with their developed 
powers, their trained minds, their expert knowl- 
edge, and offer a full, efficient life to the world. The 
church must lead men to interpret Hfe as just the 
chance to give the best they are and have in love 
and service, just the chance to love and serve; she 
must fairly force men to fling life away in service 
through the many existing agencies for truly Chris- 
tian work, through relief and reform, through edu- 
cation and uplift, through all that brings men nearer 
to our thought of God and nearer to one another. 
Given the training of his powers, the efficiency 
of the layman waits only on this divine dynamic, the 
spirit that takes life as the great opportunity to 
serve, to make the most of one's self in order to 
have the more to give in service. 



GENERAL INDEX 



Activities: maintained for de- 
velopment, 5; should meet 
need of both sexes in church, 
8; of church must furnish op- 
portunity for development, 15; 
church responsible for ex- 
pressional, 16; typical survey 
of church, 26, 27; unused 
opportunities in the general, 
35; suggested, 38, 73; their 
value in development, 43; 
study of missionary, 62 ; men 
and youth need expressional, 
68; for men in adult Bible 
classes, 73; brotherhoods use 
normal expressional, 118; of 
the J. D. Rockefeller, Jr., 
Bible class, 132; of brother- 
hoods, 136; for adults in Y. 
M. C. A., 167; for college 
men, 182; of adults in social 
settlements, 209; of lodges, 223. 

Adult, The: development possi- 
ble to, i; adult ideals applied 
to, 8; religious training of, 9, 
10; where and when to begin 
religious training of, 14; 
church's attitude toward re- 
ligious training of, 17; Y. M. 
C. A. and, 155, 156. (See Men.) 

" Adult Bible Class Movement " : 
mentioned, 27, 75; its signifi- 
cance, 80. 

Agencies of instruction in Sun- 
day-school, a typical survey of, 
27. 

Agoga classes, stand for the 
trained life, 79. 
236 



Armour mission Sunday-school, 
Chicago, 111., its curriculum, 
59. 

Association of American agri- 
cultural colleges, quotation 
from address before, 196. 

Athletics: interest of church and 
Sunday-school in, 69; church 
needs field for, 72; college 
men needed in church, 183. 

Baraca classes, stand for young 
men at work, 79. 

Bible classes. Adult: curricula 
of, 56; expressional activities 
for men in, 73; some historic- 
al, 74; suggested constitution 
for, 76; religious education 
through, 80; a development, 
81; meet a life need, 81; mod- 
ern Bible study in, 84; some 
reasons for success of, 84, 
85 ; must develop personality, 
87; must adapt their instruc- 
tion, 88; masculinity need in, 
89; equipment and preparation 
necessary for, 90; funda- 
mental test of value o*, 91; 
a social opportunity, 91; their 
highest service, 97; their part 
in brotherhoods, loi; some 
examples of study courses for, 
151, 152; in relation to col- 
lege men, 176; their opportu- 
nity for college men, 178; 

Bible, The: its study in adult 
classes of Sunday-school, 81- 
83; men need to study, 150. 



GENERAL INDEX 



237 



Bible study, modern: in adult 
classes, 81-83; in brother- 
hoods, 150; outlines of some 
courses in, 151, 152, 160; in 
Y. M. C. A., 158. 

Big brother movement, The, its 
purpose, 139. 

Birdseye, Clarence, author of 
" Individual Training in Our 
Colleges," 201. 

Brotherhood, The: its purpose 
and method, 103; topics pre- 
pared for a convention of, 147. 

Boy and the man, The, 39, 66, 
138. 

Boys' club: a typical, 139; a suit- 
able work for men in Y. AI. 
C. A., 167. 

Boys: training the, 39; men's 
opportunities for work for, 66; 
Knights of King Arthur and 
Brotherhood of David sug- 
gested for work for, 67; Sun- 
day-school athletics for, 69-71; 
brotherhood's work for, 137, 
138; Y, M. C. A. training 
men for work among, 167; 
college men needed for work 
for, 182. 

Brotherhoods, The: two stages 
in development of, 99, 100; a 
Sunday-school movement, 100; 
a platform for, 105; a lay- 
man's movement, 109; a list 
of, 110-112; officers of, i zo- 
na; conditions of success of, 
113; need a specific mission, 
115; their peculiar opportuni- 
ties, 116; a fundamental prin- 
ciple of, 118; ought to be 
training school for church 
service, 120; some examples 
of, 121; their extension work, 
125; true fraternity in work 
of, 131; Greek letter fraternity 



ideas in, 136; self-perpetua- 
ting, 137; boy problem solved 
by, 137, 138; their appeal to 
men, 141 ; their part in exten- 
sion of the kingdom, 142; 
their part in religious educa- 
tion of the church, 144; an 
educational policy for, 146; 
and the Sunday-school, 148; 
curricula of, 149; and the 
Bible, 150; Bible study out- 
lines for, 151, 152, 

Brotherhood, Chicago Baptist: 
its object, 102; aims of Harper 
Chapter of, 103; the first or- 
ganization of, 108; an organi- 
zation of young men, 109; 
lines of work suggested by, 
121; its program for men's 
clubs on citizenship, 126. 

Brotherhood, Congregational, 
purpose of, 104; its method of 
federating, 104; statistics 
from, 109; a criticism of con- 
vention of, 109; its officers, 
112. 

Brotherhood in the Southern 
Presbyterian Church, its offi- 
cers, III. 

Brotherhood of Andrew and 
Philip: its organization, 99; its 
officers, no. 

Brotherhood of David, a sug- 
gestion for boys' work, 67. 

Brotherhood of Fagg's Manor, 
Pa., Presbyterian church sug- 
gests possibilities of a brother- 
hood in rural community, 124. 

Brotherhood of First Presbyte- 
rian Church, Elkhart, Ind., 
its work described, 129. 

Brotherhood of St. Andrew- its 
purpose, 99; its officers, no. 

Brotherhood of " St. Paul," 
earliest brotherhood, 100. 



23S 



GENERAL INDEX 



Brotherhood of St, Paul's Uni- 
versalist Church, Chicago: in- 
teresting possibilities suggested 
by, 122; its Social Service 
Club, 139. 

Brotherhood, Presbyterian: its 
organization and purpose, loi; 
its officers, iii. 

Brotherhood, The Baptist, its 
officers, III. 

Brotherhood, The Methodist, its 
officers. III. 

Brotherhood, Wareham, its pur- 
pose, 121. 

Buckham, Dr. H. M., of Uni- 
versity of Vermont, quoted on 
religious education in univer- 
sities, 195. 

Burr, H. M.: his investigations 
for basis of graded Bible study 
for Y. M. C. A., 159; pre- 
pared courses of study for re- 
ligious education, 166. 

Butler, J. W., quoted on brother- 
hood work, 129. 

Central Union Church, of Hono- 
lulu, " The Men's League " of, 
36. 

Child, The: provision necessary 
for religious nurture of, 14; 
church must provide for re- 
ligious expression of, 15; value 
of play in education of, 71. 

" Christianity and the Social 
Crisis," by Walter Rauschen- 
busch, mentioned, 179. 

Church, The: need of arousing, 
v; expressing itself, x; men 
and, 8; winning men, 11, 22; 
its responsibility, 11; its func- 
tions, 12; its duties and re- 
sponsibilities related to re- 
ligious education, 12, 15; its 
"duty to child's religion, 14; 



its ideal in religious educa- 
tion, 16; responsible for ex- 
pressional activity, 16; its at- 
titude toward religious train- 
ing of adults, 17; has begun 
to stop losses, 19; lack of men 
in, 21; training men, 23; a 
typical survey of religious ac- 
tivity in, 24; its point of con- 
tact for religious training, 29; 
a laboratory for social and re- 
ligious service, 31; Illinois 
Congregational statistics rela- 
ting to men used by, 32; edu- 
cational opportunities unused 
by, 35; suggested activities 
for, 38, 72; Sunday-school 
the training school of, 40; a 
policy suggested for use by, 
41 ; its work is development 
of character, 43; a democratic 
institution, 43; a new revival 
needed in, 44; profitable con- 
ferences in, 45 ; its need for 
courses of study in servict, 
62; an opportunity for serv- 
ice in athletics of, 69; athletic 
field of, 72; dreaming, 92; 
awakening to consciousness of 
social duty, 93; highest serv- 
ice of adult Bible class to, 97; 
brotherhoods meet real need 
in, 117; should be co-ordina- 
tion between various activities 
of, 145; must tackle problems 
of society, 153; needs of col- 
lege men a problem of, 172; 
its need of college men, 181; 
college training for efficient 
work in, 185; social settle- 
ments not antagonistic to, 211; 
attendance of lodges compared 
with that of, 213; its rela- 
tion to lodges, 226; its su- 
periority to lodges, 226; note 



GENERAL INDEX 



239 



of social service in, 22T, its 
hour of opportunity, 230; its 
part in a unified co-ordinated 
organization, 231; its organic 
function, 234; must lead men 
to interpret life as opportunity 
to serve, 235. 

" Church of the Son of Man," 
an outgrowth of settlement 
work, 211. 

Coe, Prof. Geo. A., quoted, 188. 

College man, The: a criticism of, 
172; his needs, 173; problem 
of religious instruction for, 
176; Bible class must relate 
itself to life of, 177, 180; has 
ethical ideals, 178; idealism a 
characteristic of, 179; his de- 
sire for service, 179; needed 
in the church, 181; should be 
leader of church activities for 
men, 182; should be trained as 
efficient layman during college 
course, 186; his training for 
community service, 188; con- 
serving the spiritual life of, 
189. 

Conferences: profitable in the 
church, 45: suggested for ad- 
vancing efficient agencies for 
efficient men, 232. 

Congregational Association of 
Illinois, statistics quoted from 
paper presented at, 32. 

Congregational church, Winnet- 
ka. 111., its Sunday-school cur- 
riculum, 59. 

Coulter, Ernest K., organized 
Big Brother movement, 138. 

County Sunday-school Associa- 
tion in Chicago, organized an 
adult department, 75, 100. 

Courses of study: needed for 
men in Sunday-school, 55; 
suggested, 62; text-books 



needed for training in church 
service, 62; in Bible, 151, 152, 
160, 

Curricula: of adult departments 
of several Sunday-schools, 56- 
60; of brotherhoods, 149. 

Curriculum of the Sunday-school 
Federation, the official, 58. 

Davies, Rev. J. W. F., quoted, 32. 

De Groot, Mr. E. B., director of 
playgrounds, Chicago, 210. 

Denison, Edward, mentioned, 
206. 

Development: principles of mas- 
culine, I ; possible to adult 
life, i; possibilities of psycho- 
logical, 2; possibilities of 
spiritual, 5; church responsi- 
ble for spiritual, 13, 15, 20; 
ministers' part in religious, 25, 
41; through service, 29; edu- 
cation's part in religious, 42; 
church's activities valuable in, 
43; a lay ministry an oppor- 
tunity for religious, 47; of 
adult Bible classes, 74, 81; 
through brotherhoods, 116; 
Y. M. C. A. provides for 
character, 161; religion essen- 
tial to full, 192; of character 
through social settlements, 
207; value of lodges in char- 
acter, 228. 

Disciples' School, Boston, Mass., 
curriculum of, 56. 

Draper, Dr. Andrew S., quoted, 
191. 

Education, religious: belongs to 
church, II, 12; when and 
where to begin, 14; church's 
responsibility regarding, 15; 
church's attitude toward, 17; 
is church engaged in, 23; re- 



240 



GENERAL INDEX 



sponsibilities and service a 
point of contact in, 29; a sug- 
gested policy for, 41 ; democ- 
racy in, 43; necessary for 
wider life, 62; suggested ac- 
tivities for, T2; through adult 
Bible classes, 80-83; a funda- 
mental test of, 91; brother- 
hoods valuable in, 117; an im- 
portant phase of brotherhood 
work, 145; Y. M. C. A.'s part 
in, 158-169; of college men a 
church problem, 176; univer- 
sities' attention called to, 188; 
of university students in gradu- 
ate department, 189; essential 
to full life, 193; difHculties in 
State universities regarding, 
194; guild halls a plan for, 
200; social settlements agen- 
cies of, 204, 206; importance 
of lodges in, 215, 228. 
** Esquires' Discipline," a plan 
of Harper Chapter of Baptist 
Brotherhood, 108. 

Facts and Figures, relating to 
men being trained for serv- 
ice, 32. 

Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 
New York City, work of 
young men's Bible class of, 132. 

" Fraternal and Social Service," 
a new department of the Re- 
ligious Education Association, 
227. 

Friends' Central Educational 
Committee, Great Britain, its 
Sunday-school curriculum, 57. 

Freemason, the charge of a, 216. 

Freemasonry, Thomas T. Tur- 
ner, quoted on, 218. 

Gladstone, Wm, E., mentioned, 
so. 



Group-expression: power of re- 
ligious, 12; church responsible 
for, 12; adult Bible classes a, 
91. 

Guild Halls, a brief study of, 199. 

Harper Chapter of Baptist Bro- 
therhood: its purpose, 108; 
"Esquires' discipline" planned 
by, 108; its form of reception 
of members, 133. 

Harvard University, provides op- 
portunities for community 
service, 188. 

Henderson, Dr. C. R., his defini- 
tion of social settlement, 204. 

Hubbell Class of First Baptist 
Church of Rochester, N. Y., a 
notable class for young men, 74. 

Hudson, Marshall, suggested Ba- 
raca classes, 79. 

Hyde Park Baptist Sunday- 
school, Chicago, 111.: curricu- 
lum of adult department of, 
59; Harper Chapter of the 
Baptist Brotherhood of, 108. 

Hyde Park Presbyterian Church, 
Chicago, 111., outline of topics 
discussed in men's Bible class 
of, 60. 

Immigration, social settlement's 
aid in solving problem of, 210. 

" Individual Training in Our 
Colleges," by Clarence Birds- 
eye, quoted, 201. 

Institutional life, a deep need 
in, 203. 

International Sunday School As- 
sociation, suggested constitu- 
tion for adult classes sent out 
by, ^6. 

Introspection: characteristic of 
feminine mind, 6; marked at 
two periods in men, 8. 



GENERAL INDEX 



241 



King's Daughters, mentioned, 28. 

Knights of King Arthur, men- 
tioned, 67, 134. 

Knights of Pythias: aims and 
ideals of, 217; qualifications for 
membership in order of, 217. 

Layman's movement, A. the 
brotherhood, 109. 

Lodges and fraternities, their 
numerical membership in 
North America, 212. 

Lodges: their large attendance, 
213; and church attendance, 
213; their importance in re- 
ligious education, 215; their 
foundations, 215; an example 
of teachings of, 219; their re- 
ligious ideals, 219; meet needs 
of men, 221; value of child's 
play in, 221; their masculinity 
a powerful attraction, 223; 
their expressional activities, 
223; recognizing responsibility 
for social service, 22T. 

Magnetism of optimism, 9. 

Manhood, Period of: masculine 
characteristics during, 2; pos- 
sibilities of psychological de- 
velopment during, 2; religious 
development during, 5. 

Men: neglect of training for 
adult, vii; and the churches, 8; 
introspective, 8; gregarious 
tendencies of, 10, 87; stopping 
losses of, 19; not in the 
churches, 21; how to win, 22; 
restlessness of young, 30; Il- 
linois Congregational statistics 
relating to training of, 32; 
Sunday-school's duty to, 53; 
Sunday-school course of study 
for. 55 ; their opportunities 
as teachers, 66; need opportu- 



nities for self-expression, 68; 
need play, 71; boys need, 71; 
in Bible classes, 74; their ac- 
tivities in Bible classes, 84; 
in Sunday-school to unprece- 
dented degree, 85; need an at- 
mosphere, 87; practical-mind- 
edness of, 96; need responsi- 
bility, 141; the call to, 141; 
need Bible study, 150; Y. M. 
C. A.'s service for adult, 155- 
157; Bible instruction in Y. 
M. C. A. for adult, 158-161; 
Y. M. C. A. provides study of 
life problems and ethics for, 
161-166; activities in Y. M. 
C. A. for, 167; developed into 
full life by " ways of men," 
229; their greatest need for 
service, 234. 

Men and women, differences in 
religious characteristics be- 
tween, 6, 8. 

Men's Bible Class of Hyde Park 
Presbyterian Church, Chicago, 
111., outline of topics dis- 
cussed in, 61. 

" Men's League, The," of Hono- 
lulu, duties of members of, 36. 

Men's movement, Disciples of 
of Christ, its officers, in. 

Men's movement of United Breth- 
ren Church, its officers, in. 

Merrifield, Rev. Fred, leader of 
Bible class in University of 
Michigan, 151. 

Methods of church work, need 
for training as to, 63. 

Ministers: their duty in re- 
ligious development, 25; must 
be trained as educators, 41 ; 
must survey work from edu- 
cator's viewpoint, 42; must 
lead people into educational 
service, 42, 



^4^ 



GENERAL INDEX 



Ministry, a lay: an opportunity 
for religious development, 47; 
Dr. Cunningham Geikie on, 51 ; 
United States a field for, 52. 

National League of Universalist 
Laymen, its officers, iii. 

Optimism, magnetism of, 9. 

Opportunities: educational, 35; 
many unused in churches* 
general activities, 35; for en- 
listing men in boys' work, 66; 
for self-expression needed, 58; 
adult Bible classes' social, 91; 
of brotherhoods, 116; for serv- 
ice for young people, 154; for 
service needed by college men, 
174; for service in church 
open to college men, 183; for 
training in community service 
afforded by Harvard Univer- 
sity, 188; social settlements 
provide instructional, 208; for 
service in lodges, 224. 

Parker, Hon. Francis W., pro- 
gram on citizenship prepared 
by, 126. 

Parks as schools, established 
through impetus of settlement 
work, 210. 

Phillips Brooks House, an oppor- 
tunity for community service, 
188. 

Policy: suggested for churches 
in training men, 41 ; brother- 
hood committee outlines an 
educational, 146. 

Prayer meetings, a typical sur- 
vey of, 28. 

Preachers, The lay: their tempta- 
tions, 48; their advantages, 49; 
statistics relating to, 50; in 
the United States, 50. 



Rauschenbusch, Prof. Walter, 
author of " Christianity and 
the Social Crisis,'' 179. 

Religion: man's relation to, 5; 
agencies of, 6, 7; sex in, 6; 
distinguishing characteristics 
of mature masculine, 7; a duty 
of, 10; church responsible for 
group expression of, 12; ac- 
tivity and expression in, 16; 
changing emphasis in, 94, 95; 
practical-mindedness in, 96; 
State universities prohibit in- 
struction in, 190; service of, 
193; schemes for State uni- 
versities for teaching, 179; 
practical means for infusing, 
201. 

Religious Education Association: 
a resolution passed by, 186; a 
memorial sent to universities 
by, 187; a new department of, 
227. 

Religious training of adult man, 
8, 9. 

Responsibilities and service, a 
point of contact, 29. 

Revival, a new, needed in the 
church, 44. 

Richardson, W. S., leader of 
young men's Bible class. Fifth 
Avenue Baptist Church, New 
York City, 102. 

Rockefeller, John D., Jr., his 
Bible-class work, 132. 

Service: church responsible for, 
13; and responsibilities, 29; by 
education, 29; young men de- 
veloped through, 30; the 
church a laboratory for, 31; 
statistics relating to men be- 
ing trained in, 62; boys' work 
an opportunity for, 66; church 
athletics an opportunity for. 



GENERAL INDEX 



243 



69; brotherhoods develop in- 
terest in, 117, 120; opportuni- 
ties of young people for, 134; 
in church needed by college 
man, 174; the college man's 
desire for, 179; the college 
man's opportunity for, 182; a 
suggestion for college training 
of layman for efficient church, 
185; college training for com- 
munity, 188; of religion, 193; 
social settlement's opportunities 
for, 209; efficient layman will 
desire, 233; a man's greatest 
need for, 234; is life's oppor- 
tunity, 235. 

Services of worship: affording 
emotional and sensuous ap- 
peals, 24; affording intellec- 
tual appeals, 25; affording ac- 
tivities, 26. 

Sex in religion, 6. 

Shop lectures: under auspices of 
Y. M. C. A., 169; outlines of, 
170, 171. 

Social problems: church awa- 
kening to consciousness of 
duty regarding, 93; in light of 
spirit of the Bible, 151; church 
must tackle, 153; studied by 
Y. M. C. A., 161, 167: col- 
lege training for dealing with, 
188; lodges recognize respon- 
sibility regarding, 22T. 

Social settlements: an effective 
agency in religious education, 
204, 206; some definitions of, 
204, 205; their number, 205, 
206; their contribution to re- 
ligious education, 206; broaden 
sympathies, 207; their instruc- 
tional opportunities, 208; re- 
sponsible for establishment of 
parks as schools, 210; help to 
solve immigration problem, 211, 



Statistics, relating to men being 
trained for service in Illinois 
Congregational churches, 32. 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, a type 
of spiritual development, 9. 

St. Agnes' Chapel, Trinity Par- 
ish, New York, its Sunday- 
school curriculum, 58. 

Sunday-school: a typical survey 
of agencies of instruction, ac- 
tivities, and social opportuni- 
ties in, 2T, 28; some statistics 
relating to men in the, 33; 
training school of the church, 
39, 40; its duty to men, 53; 
its purpose, 53; how needs of 
men may be met by, 50. 62; 
principal business and primary 
need of adult department of, 
54; suitable text-books for 
adult department of, 55; cur- 
ricula of several adult classes 
of, 56-60; training for church 
efficiency, 62; men's opportu- 
nity as teachers in, 66; needs 
suitable expressional activities, 
68; athletics, 70; activities for 
men in adult Bible classes of, 
73; adult Bible classes of, 74; 
its mission with adult Bible 
classes, 97; brotherhoods re- 
sult of the, 100; its purpose 
different from brotherhoods, 
107; and brotherhoods, 148. 

Survey, a typical, of religious 
training in the church, 24. 

Taylor, Graham, of " Chicago 
Commons,'' his definition of 
social settlement, 205. 

Teachers' College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, New York, its curric- 
ulum, 56. 

Teacher, Sunday-school: oppor- 
tunities of adult man as, dd; 



244 



GENERAL INDEX 



his contribution in enriching 
lives, 87; must be a leader, 
90; equipment and prepara- 
tion necessary for, 90; must 
be informed on vital questions 
of day, 98; advantages of col- 
lege bred, 177; memorial to uni- 
versities by Religious Educa- 
tion Association relating to, 187. 

Text-books: needed for adult 
classes, 55; issued by Y. M. 
C. A., 55; need for courses of 
study for training in church 
efficiency, 62; needed on church 
duties and procedure, 120. 

Thomas T. Turner, most wor- 
shipful grandmaster of the 
grand lodge of Illinois, quoted 
on Freemasonry, 218. 

Toynbee, Arnold, mentioned, 206. 

Training, religious. (See Edu- 
cation.) 

United Presbyterian men's move- 
ment, its officers, no, in. 

University Con gregational 
Church, Chicago, 111., its Sun- 
day-school curriculum, 57. 

University of Michigan, Bible 
study in, 151. 

University life: guild halls in 
connection with, 199; practical 
means for infusing religion into, 
201 ; needs personalising, 203. 

Universities, State: instruction 
in religion prohibited in, 190; 
results desired from, 191; 
their proper function, 192; 
service of religion in, 193; 
difficulties regarding religious 
education in, 194; some schemes 
for teaching religion in, 197. 

University students: conserving 
the spiritual life of, 189; 
adults as, 190. 



Vacation Bible-schools, con- 
ducted by college students, 
189. 

Votaw, Prof. C. W., Bible-study 
courses prepared for boys by, 
159. 

Woolfolk, Miss Ada S., her defi- 
nition of social settlement, 
204. 

Worship, services of, a typical 
survey of, 24. 

Young men: their restlessness 
and need, 30; notable Bible 
classes for, 74; in brother- 
hoods, 109; their opportunities 
for service, 153. 

Young People's Missionary 
Movement, its impetus to 
study, 62. 

Youth: their training for wider 
religious life, 64; their educa- 
tion for life, 65; need expres- 
sional activities, 68; parks as 
schools for, 209. 

Y. M. C. A.: its text-books suit- 
able for Sunday-schools, 55; 
its part in church athletics, 
69; its Bible-study courses 
suitable for brotherhoods, 152; 
where adult men preponderate 
in, 15s, 156; provision neces- 
sary for religious training of 
adults in, 157; social group- 
ings in, 157; its systematic Bi- 
ble instruction for adults, 158; 
some outlines of Bible-study 
courses used by, 160; outlines 
of courses on ethics and for 
solving life's problems, 161- 
166; activities for adult men 
in, 167; is directing men in so- 
cial service, 167; its shop lec- 
tures, 169. 



A^U/: l^-f^'L 



The Efficient Layman 

OR 

THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF MEN 



Cliests for ^Ij.B- Begrsg, ^tpim Colbge, 1908 



Henry Frederick Cope 

General Secretaky 
The Religious EIducation Association 

Author of 

'The Modem Sunday-School in Principle and Practice' 

"Levels of living," '• The Friendly Life," etc 



The Griffith & Rowland Press 

Philadelphia 
Boston Chicago St. Louis 



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Copyright 1911 by 
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 



Published January, 19x1 



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